Expected average duration of working life for 15-year-olds on the rise

The expected average duration of working life for 15-year olds in Malta is higher than the EU average, having stood at 36.9 years in Malta in 2020.

The expected average duration of working life for 15-year olds in the European Union (EU) was 35.7 years in 2020, 0.2 years less than the average for 2019. This is the first time since 2000 that this has declined in the EU as a whole, Eurostat said. No such decrease was seen in Malta. In fact, Malta’s 2020 statistic is an increase over 2019, when the expected average duration in Malta was 36.3 years.

“The number of years that people can expect to be in the labour force (employed or unemployed) during their life course has also been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Among others, people who would have been available to work and would have sought employment, may have given up their search due to low return expectations, and consequently be outside the labour force, reducing the expected duration of working life,” Eurostat said, of the EU average statistic.

As regards the gender gap, it diminished slowly but steadily at EU level between 2000 to 2020; from 7.1 years in 2000 to 4.8 years in 2020, while the expected working life for women increased by 4.5 years, for men it rose by just 2.2 years over the same.

In Malta however, while the gap is diminishing, it remains far wider.

The expected average duration of working life for 15-year old men in Malta was 41.2 years in 2020, up from 39.1 in 2011. The expected average duration for women stood at 32.3 years in 2020, up from 22.4 years in 2011.

This means that in 2020, the gap between men and women was 8.9 years. While this is a significant increase over the 16.7 years in 2011, it is still higher than the EU average.