In 2024, 29 percent of the employed population in Germany worked part-time.

Women were more than four times more likely to work part-time than men: While almost every second woman (49 percent) worked part-time, this was only true for just over one in nine men (12 percent). As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday, the part-time rate thus reached a new high for both women and men. The employment rate of 15- to 64-year-olds was just over 77 percent in 2024, also reaching a record high.

The employment rate for men was 81 percent, around seven percentage points higher than for women at 74 percent. The gap between men and women has narrowed significantly over the past 20 years: The employment rate for women has risen by around 15 percentage points since 2005, from just over 59 percent, while the increase for men was less pronounced, at just under ten percentage points (2005: 71 percent). The increase in employment is accompanied by a rise in the proportion of employed people working part-time. Between 2005 and 2024, the part-time employment rates increased by around five percentage points for both women (from 43 percent to 49 percent) and men (from 7 percent to 12 percent) aged 15 to 64. Among parents of minor children, 92 percent of fathers, but only 71 percent of mothers, were employed in 2024. Even more pronounced gender differences are evident among parents with children under three years of age: nine out of ten fathers (89 percent), but only four out of ten mothers (40 percent) were employed. While the proportion of employed fathers with children under three and with children under 18 has increased only slightly since 2005 (+3 and +4 percentage points, respectively), the employment rates of mothers with children under three and under 18 have increased significantly (+12 and +11 percentage points, respectively). The part-time work rate was higher among employed mothers than among employed women overall, the statisticians continued. In 2024, 68 percent of all mothers with children under 18 worked part-time, and among mothers with children under three, the figure was as high as 73 percent. In contrast, employed fathers with children under 18 (8 percent) and fathers with children under three (9 percent) reduced their working hours less frequently than all employed men. While the part-time work rate among mothers has barely changed since 2005, it increased among fathers by a good four percentage points.