P&MS EMPLOYEES PER COUNTRY: Men and Women

How many professional and managerial staff (P&MS) are there in Europe? How are they distributed among the workforce? Which countries do they work in? How many men and how may women? It is not always easy to reply to this type of question, as statistical systems differ from one country to another, making comparison difficult. This is particularly true of the way in which professional and managerial staff are defined and counted. However, for the past few years EUROSTAT , the statistical office of the European Communities, has been using a job classification system which facilitates comparisons between countries. Known as ISCO 88 (International Standard Classification of Occupations), this classification system comprises ten groups. Professional and managerial staff corresponds to ISCO groups 1 and 2.

Managers & Professional employees per Country Source EUROCADRES 2003 - figures EUROSTAT : Labour force survey 2002

It is worth noting in particular that the proportion of professional and managerial staff, which ranges between about 15% and 20%, varies substantially from one country to another. While the European average is 18,3%, rates of over 25% are observed in countries such as Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom and only 10 to 12% in Portugal or Italy. The level in most countries is between 15% and 20%.

Do such variations reflect real differences in professional structures or different approaches to the same statistical definition? Both these explanations probably reflect reality to a certain extent. Statisticians are working to achieve greater coherence between the countries, gradually enabling us to gain a more accurate idea of professional realities in our European countries.

Women and men as a proportion of P&MS employed in EuropeSource EUROCADRES 2003 - figures EUROSTAT : Labour force survey 2002

It is important to note that we are far from achieving gender equality for P&MS. The average proportion of women P&MS in categories ISCO 1 and 2 is 41,4% in EU 15countries. But this conceals more marked inequalities:

• ISCO 1 (managers) includes only 29,7% women,
• SCO 2 (professionals) includes 46,5% women,

but no more detailed breakdown of the figures, which might show big differences between occupations, is available.

ILO data (Breaking through the glass ceiling: women in management)shows women holding from 1 to 5 per cent of executive position