Employment rates are defined as a measure of the extent to which available labour resources (people available to work) are being used. They are calculated as the ratio of the employed to the working age population. Employment rates are sensitive to the economic cycle, but in the longer term they are significantly affected by governments' higher education and income support policies and by policies that facilitate employment of women and disadvantaged groups. Employed people are those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week. The working age population refers to people aged 15 to 64. This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured in terms of thousand persons aged 15 and over; and in numbers of employed persons aged 15 to 64 as a percentage of working age population.

The employment rate for a given age group is measured as the number of employed people of a given age as a percentage of the total number of people in that same age group. Employed people are defined as those aged 15 and over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week while having a formal job attachment. Employment rates are shown for four age groups: people aged 15-64 (the working age population): people aged 15 to 24 (those just entering the labour market following education); people aged 25 to 54 (those in their prime working lives); people aged 55 to 64 (those passing the peak of their career and approaching retirement). This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured as a percentage in same age group.

This indicator shows the employment rates of people according to their education levels: below upper secondary, upper secondary non-tertiary, or tertiary. The employment rate refers to the number of persons in employment as a percentage of the population of working age. The employed are defined as those who work for pay or profit for at least one hour a week, or who have a job but are temporarily not at work due to illness, leave or industrial action. This indicator measures the percentage of employed 25-64 year-olds among all 25-64 year-olds.

Employment by industry is broken down by agriculture, construction, industry including construction, manufacturing and services activities. This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured in thousands of people.

Part-time employment is defined as people in employment (whether employees or self-employed) who usually work less than 30 hours per week in their main job. Employed people are those aged 15 and over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week while having a formal job attachment. This indicator, presented as a total and per gender, shows the proportion of persons employed part-time among all employed persons and is also called incidence of part-time employment.

Self-employment is defined as the employment of employers, workers who work for themselves, members of producers' co-operatives, and unpaid family workers. The latter are unpaid in the sense that they lack a formal contract to receive a fixed amount of income at regular intervals, but they share in the income generated by the enterprise. Unpaid family workers are particularly important in farming and retail trade. All persons who work in corporate enterprises, including company directors, are considered to be employees. Self-employment may be seen either as a survival strategy for those who cannot find any other means of earning an income or as evidence of entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to be one's own boss. Employed people are as those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week. This indicator is measured as a percentage of the employed population considered (total, men or women).

Temporary employment includes wage and salary workers whose job has a pre-determined termination date. National definitions broadly conform to this generic definition, but may vary depending on national circumstances. This indicator is broken down by age group and it is measured as percentage of dependent employees (i.e. wage and salary workers).

The labour force, or currently active population, comprises all persons who fulfil the requirements for inclusion among the employed (civilian employment plus the armed forces) or the unemployed. The employed are defined as those who work for pay or profit for at least one hour a week, or who have a job but are temporarily not at work due to illness, leave or industrial action. The armed forces cover personnel from the metropolitan territory drawn from the total available labour force who served in the armed forces during the period under consideration, whether stationed in the metropolitan territory or elsewhere. The unemployed are defined as people without work but actively seeking employment and currently available to start work. This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured in persons.

The labour force is the number of persons either employed or unemployed but actively looking for work. Forecast is based on an assessment of the economic climate in individual countries and the world economy, using a combination of model-based analyses and expert judgement. This indicator is measured in persons.

The labour force participation rates is calculated as the labour force divided by the total working-age population. The working age population refers to people aged 15 to 64. This indicator is broken down by age group and it is measured as a percentage of each age group.

Average annual hours worked is defined as the total number of hours actually worked per year divided by the average number of people in employment per year. Actual hours worked include regular work hours of full-time, part-time and part-year workers, paid and unpaid overtime, hours worked in additional jobs, and exclude time not worked because of public holidays, annual paid leave, own illness, injury and temporary disability, maternity leave, parental leave, schooling or training, slack work for technical or economic reasons, strike or labour dispute, bad weather, compensation leave and other reasons. The data cover employees and self-employed workers. This indicator is measured in terms of hours per worker per year. The data are published with the following health warning: The data are intended for comparisons of trends over time; they are unsuitable for comparisons of the level of average annual hours of work for a given year, because of differences in their sources and method of calculation.