The First Part-TIME Economy in the World
Does it Work?
There was a strong rise in part-time and atypical employment in both periods but especially
since 1984. Part-time jobs account for three-quarters of the job growth since 1983. Of the
total increase in employment with 1,2 million persons between 1988 and 1997, two thirds
were working part-time (defined as jobs of less than 35 hours per week). There was a small
growth in full-time jobs as well, in sharp contrast with the period before 1984. Employment
growth is driven by strong labour force growth, 1.4 per cent per year between 1982 and
1996, compared with 0.5 per cent in the European Union. This reflects relatively rapid
population growth (the birth rate in the Netherlands declined later than in other European
countries) and a catching-up of the low female participation rate to European averages. In
the period considered here, the Netherlands experienced the fastest rise in the employment
rate of women in any OECD country. This is even the case when employment is expressed
in full-time equivalent jobs (see Table 2).