In 2024, countries like Italy (19.4pp), Greece (18.8pp) and Romania (18.1pp) continue to register the widest divides between male and female employment rates. Meanwhile, Finland (0.7pp), Lithuania (1.4pp) and Estonia (1.7pp) are among the most balanced.
While Malta’s exact 2024 gap figure was not highlighted among the highest or lowest in the EU, the scale of its improvement over a decade stands out.
However, broader EU trends show that women remain more likely to work part-time or in less secure roles. In 2024, 27.8% of employed women across the EU worked part-time compared to just 7.7% of men. Women were also more likely to be on temporary contracts (11.3% vs 8.9%) and to experience underemployment (3.6% vs 1.6%).
Still, Malta’s sharp reduction in its gender employment gap suggests significant structural shifts in female participation in the workforce over the past decade, marking one of the country’s strongest labour market transformations in recent years.
What do you make of these statistics?