The forgotten labour force: Characteristics and trends for older female part-time workers in Ireland
, and | Aug 22, 2020
About this article
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Aug 22, 2020
Page range: 47 - 60
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2010-0006
Keywords
© 2019 Maeve O’Sullivan et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Definitions of part-time employment/part-time workers
| Ireland | (CSO, 2008) | Work less than approx. 30 hours per week |
| Finland, Canada, New Zealand, U.K. | ( |
Work less than approx. 30 hours per week |
| Australia, Austria, Iceland, Sweden, U.S. | ( |
Work less than approx. 35 hours per week |
| Hungary, Turkey | ( |
Work less than approx. 36 hours per week |
| Norway | ( |
Work less than approx. 37 hours per week |
| Japan | (Houseman and Osawa, 1998) | Explicitly related to status within the firm and not to hours worked |
| International Labour Office | ILO Part-Time Work Convention, 1994 | Normal hours of work less than those of comparable full-time work |
| European Union | EU Part-Time Work Directive (1997) | Normal hours of work less than those of comparable full-time work |
Socio-economic characteristics for older female part-time workers, 1998 and 2014 (%)
| Sector | Private | 79.3 | 48.8 |
| Public | 20.7 | 51.2 | |
| Managers, Directors & senior officials | 9.9 | 1.3 | |
| Professional | 6.0 | 12.7 | |
| Associate professional | 11.2 | 6.5 | |
| Higher-level occupations | 27.1% | 20.5% | |
| Administration/clerical | 16.1 | 25.3 | |
| Craft | 1.6 | 2.6 | |
| Occupation | Mid-level occupations | 17.7% | 27.9% |
| Personal services | 14.6 | 20.8 | |
| Sales | 13.3 | 14.7 | |
| Plant Operatives | 2.5 | 1.5 | |
| Elementary | 24.8 | 14.6% | |
| Lower-level occupations | 55.2% | 51.6% | |
| Industry | 6.2 | 3.5 | |
| Construction | 0.7 | 1.0 | |
| Wholesale/retail | 17.3 | 19.7 | |
| Transportation | 1.3 | 1.2 | |
| Accommodation/food | 13.1 | 5.8 | |
| ICT | 0.8 | 0.8 | |
| Economic sector | Financial activities | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Professional activities | 3.7 | 3.2 | |
| Admin activities | 5.8 | 6.1 | |
| Public admin | 2.0 | 5.7 | |
| Education | 12.9 | 12.4 | |
| Health activities | 24.2 | 36.2 | |
| Hours always vary | 6.3 | 6.2 | |
| 2 to 8 hours | 7.1 | 6.8 | |
| Usual hours worked | 9 to 18 hours | 33.0 | 27.9 |
| 19 to 30 hours | 51.7 | 58.3 | |
| Over 30 hours | 2.0 | 0.8 |
Demographic characteristics for older female part-time workers, 1998 and 2014 (%)
| At work | N |
31,965 | 77,730 |
| Non-Irish | 2.2 | 5.0 | |
| Nationality | Irish | 97.8 | 95.0 |
| Single | 4.7 | 7.4 | |
| Married | 80.3 | 75.2 | |
| Marital status | Widowed | 8.4 | 6.9 |
| Divorced/legally separated | 6.6 | 10.5 | |
| Couple no children | 26.2 | 35.7 | |
| Family type | Couple with children | 63.1 | 50.2 |
| Lone parent family | 10.7 | 14.1 | |
| Primary | 34.3 | 10.0 | |
| Lower secondary | 19.3 | 16.2 | |
| Higher secondary | 18.3 | 29.1 | |
| Highest educational attainment |
Post-secondary | 11.2 | 18.4 |
| Third level | 16.7 | 26.1 | |
| Doctoral | 0.2 | 0.1 |
Proportion of population aged 50–64 as a percentage of total population
| EU 28 | 18.2 | 18.7 | 19.2 | 19.6 | 19.9 | 20.1 |
| Austria | 17.6 | 17.8 | 18.3 | 19.4 | 20.0 | 20.6 |
| Belgium | 18.1 | 18.8 | 19.3 | 19.5 | 19.7 | 20.0 |
| Bulgaria | 20.6 | 21.1 | 21.4 | 21.3 | 21.1 | 20.6 |
| Croatia | 19.2 | 19.7 | 20.5 | 21.2 | 21.4 | 21.5 |
| Cyprus | 16.5 | 16.9 | 17.4 | 17.7 | 18.1 | 18.0 |
| Czech Republic | 21.1 | 21.4 | 20.9 | 20.4 | 19.8 | 19.5 |
| Denmark | 19.9 | 19.9 | 19.6 | 19.2 | 19.1 | 19.3 |
| Estonia | 18.2 | 18.4 | 19.2 | 19.9 | 20.0 | 19.7 |
| Finland | 21.1 | 21.5 | 21.7 | 21.3 | 20.7 | 20.3 |
| France | 17.9 | 18.6 | 19.1 | 19.4 | 19.3 | 19.2 |
| Germany | 18.4 | 18.6 | 19.3 | 20.7 | 21.7 | 22.1 |
| Greece | 17.0 | 17.7 | 18.3 | 18.6 | 19.0 | 19.4 |
| Hungary | 20.1 | 20.4 | 20.3 | 21.0 | 20.5 | 20.0 |
| IRELAND | 15.4 | 15.4 | 15.8 | 16.2 | 16.7 | 16.9 |
| Italy | 18.5 | 18.7 | 19.1 | 19.5 | 19.9 | 20.6 |
| Latvia | 17.8 | 17.9 | 18.8 | 20.0 | 20.6 | 20.7 |
| Lithuania | 16.7 | 17.1 | 18.2 | 19.7 | 20.6 | 21.1 |
| Luxembourg | 16.9 | 17.3 | 17.8 | 18.2 | 18.7 | 19.2 |
| Malta | 20.2 | 21.6 | 21.7 | 21.6 | 20.9 | 20.1 |
| Netherlands | 19.0 | 19.7 | 20.1 | 20.3 | 20.4 | 20.6 |
| Poland | 18.2 | 19.6 | 21.0 | 21.5 | 21.3 | 20.8 |
| Portugal | 17.8 | 18.3 | 18.8 | 19.4 | 20.0 | 20.4 |
| Romania | 17.9 | 18.9 | 20.0 | 20.0 | 19.8 | 18.9 |
| Slovenia | 19.2 | 19.9 | 20.3 | 21.2 | 21.5 | 21.7 |
| Slovakia | 17.9 | 18.9 | 19.6 | 20.2 | 20.3 | 20.4 |
| Spain | 16.5 | 16.9 | 17.4 | 18.0 | 18.7 | 19.6 |
| Sweden | 19.7 | 19.6 | 19.1 | 18.5 | 18.1 | 18.1 |
| United Kingdom | 17.8 | 18.0 | 18.1 | 18.2 | 18.2 | 18.5 |
Number of observations for relevant QNHS datasets
| Q4 1998 | 108,381 |
| Q4 2001 | 106,909 |
| Q4 2014 | 50,515 |