well, that's it for the time being up next off to the break of the push for europeans to work more that's coming up next on business. i'm going to strategy in a building. i'll see you soon in about 45 minutes from now. i'll see you then by the evening was like a stepping point to you know, time what you into that warranty wants to finish your studies. now you have a significant from the train. you can choose to go back to somewhere else. currently, more people than ever on the world wide in such a professional life, at least something that is coming very very soon. and yeah, can we learn more about or no one, a story info my grands rush hour in amsterdam. statistically, about one out of every 2 of these workers is a part time employee. benevolence as your capital

a part time works. almost half the population works less than 35 hours a week and can generally afford it. the question is, can the country labor shortages are already hitting hard and work forces are getting smaller? and it's not just the netherlands, germany, austria and switzerland are facing similar trends. now we're in this situation, our society is over aging. we have 200000 open positions in australia. many employees are pushing to work less. how does that add up? we'll look at how relationships with work are changing in wealthy or european countries. and what that means for an era of labor shortages workers begin to raise their hours. what's the reason that you want to work for days, and what do you need to work full time? or will they push for more free time? i think that's the more time that you can make for yourself for personal practice, for personal life. i think it can be really interesting. will europe work more in

the future or will work less that's coming up on business beyond? europe's labor landscape has changed in recent decades. not that long ago, the idealized household in many european countries looked like this. one partner worked typically the man, the other stayed at home to care for the children. and of course that was supposed to be the woman. especially if you're looking at a household test. so just to be the case that women were not working at all with the pumps in the fifty's, susanna by can cause an economist with rob, a bank and trust. so you could be fired here in the mountains when you both married . and then you saw that the line was working and was working 40 hours a week. now things look rather different. women's participation in the workforce has grown significantly across europe in recent decades. that's also helped make workforce is bigger. the you remains in near peak employment of around 75 percent. it's highest level since recording began in 2009. several economies including

germany, austria and switzerland have recently been at or near record employment rates. those characteristics of europe's modern workforce that is larger, that it's more integrated. they owe a lot to the popularity of part time work. and the embrace of part time work really began here in the netherlands. unemployment was much higher in the netherlands in the late seventies and early eighties. the country encouraged part time work as part of a series of broader reforms. and it helped, in a sense that more people entered the market. especially women. unemployment fell. germany took a similar route in the ninety's, the newly re unified country suddenly had a lot of workers without jobs. part time became a feature of more and more labor agreements. the netherlands and jeremy later created laws protecting part time, basically making it more difficult for an employer to reject an employee request to work that way. and part time caught on in other countries, austria and switzerland, for example,

as well. now roughly is 3rd of employees is working less than full time, but part time is most popular among women who still have the majority of care responsibilities at home and less flexibility with full time. now the netherlands as one of the highest shares of women in the workforce. it's important to note that the netherlands and some of the other countries we've been talking about are a bit more conservative. on the one hand, that is women traditionally stayed at home to care for children, and they didn't work. another difference is it, the netherlands is wealthier than other european countries. in other words, it's more likely that in a dutch household with 2 workers, one is working part time out of choice. that's more so perhaps than another country sign of us we're pension is not arranged, and there is no real state pension in that sense. here in the netherlands, that's more range, so there's more social nets to catch people when things go back and when you get unemployment and, and have makes the people have a more comfortable position in that sense. there are also this incentives to

working more taxes. for example, among major economies, european countries have some of the highest tax rates on 2nd earners with children and their downsides. the part time means lower income and workers again, predominately women often don't return to full time work in the ends, whether for cultural or financial reasons or a combination. many households in the netherlands feel comfortable with a one and a half or household with one person working full time. and the other part time part time work is given employees and households more flexibility, essentially more options to balance work with the care obligations they have at home for children or for family members. so what's wrong with that? actually nothing, but it does mean that there's less work being done per person. the average part time worker in the you puts in around 22 hours a week. and look at this. this is the average number of working hours per worker annually in major economies around the world. and guess who's at the bottom wealth, your european nations. germany isn't just at the very bottom. it's 400 hours below

the easy, the average of that makes sense when we consider part time work. and again, that's not really a problem, as long as word forces are big, but they're shrinking. and this is happening across the western economies right now . look at how this population payment for the changes from 2022 to 2100 noticeably shrinking. the number of working age individuals in each state is expected to decline. 20 percent of labor is going to be scars, very scars in the future. so this is not a one off, it's not like 10 years from now or out of this and then it's gone. now it's, it's here to stay. she's talking about the netherlands, but the same applies to other european countries as well. economists warren, that there's no easy fix to the coming labor problems. it's going to take more than migration, for example, to deal with what's the head for, see how part time plays and for the coming shortages. you can look here. i march, you luck. the principal,

if you had any class that your primary school in education is one sector where shortages are already back in the netherlands, also in germany. and it's not very good at the salaries bad. you go to another problem with the parents. so that doesn't help when applicants come to much of school, many wants to work part time for different reasons. but with a smaller candidate pool, that's a problem. always started a conversation with her. what's the reason that you want to work for these? and what do you need to work full time? i tell them the, the advantages for them, but also for their salary, but also for the long term that they're also aware about the choices and the consequences they makes. health care is another sector we're finding people is becoming more difficult. there's a shortage of people. it's so low, productive labor so, so it's it's, it's just a heavy, it's physically offensive, especially health care. and demand for health care is only going to rise in the

years ahead. societies are getting older, remember, or caring for children and family members is the number one reason employees give for why they work. part time again, this is overwhelmingly women. so does that mean that if we provide more care options for them, the more will go into the workforce? well, it's actually not that simple. even a lot of women tell us that they started working to join the labor force, but the contract of 16 hours, like 30 years ago. and they say never change the to drive and works with dutch healthcare organizations who are struggling with labor shortages. very elaborate shift structures, especially in health care, often make part time more attractive to both employees and employers. she says, but there's also become something of a broader cultural expectation for part time. we ask them, why did you never change? and they say, well yeah, that's simply the way it is. so it is really deeply angry norm. and now of course, because we have the labor market shortages, all of

a sudden everybody starts doubt. whether this is actually the right norm. it's a hard topic because it's everyone is used to it. so yeah, we all work part time and, and as a mom for full time working love, and you often get the question, how do you work full time? but why do you work full time and, and so i don't know it's it's, it's hard to change. but part time is about more than just working months. my name is titus. i'm an architect and i work 28 hours place. okay, isn't caring for children or family members, but she works part time anyways. so i love assessing your method on a friday is like on, i'm sorry you're working. i don't know. i know her work cited price were 28 hours while finishing up her master's degree. her firm asked her to come back up to 32 hours still part time, but she doesn't mind. i feel that right now with 28 hours, i earn enough to leave. okay, let's say. and the idea is that if i were to continue working 28 hours and then i

could say development the my hobby as an illustrator into a side game. but um, with 32 hours, of course, and that will be a more salary and the end of the month when they advantage that i still have the fridays free. so i can stay work on my list for asians and who knows where that will take me. let's be clear. tice's work is quite different from say, nursing or teaching. but economists say that underlying desire to have more free time is visible across well, few european countries. i have the feeling that people started to realize that maybe work is not everything and maybe being extremely rich is not everything. that's right. now it's meant more about how you feel, mentally, how are you, dedicate time for your family or for the things that you actually truly long throwing. in other words, falling work hours isn't just about care taking. it's also about a more general push for work life balance across the entire workforce. just look at

germany. the country still workers have pushed rate for day work week and recent negotiations. despite many of them already working 35 hours full time. real workers shut down train lines earlier this year in their push for 35 hour work week. this is a tricky part for policy makers. labor has more leverage, but it's not just higher wages but it wants. and while some industries may do, all right, with your workers for other sectors, that's not an option. distinguishing where fewer hours works from where it doesn't that can be difficult. this is altering, chances are called a home up. here he's speaking informally to a group of supporters news out support last year. he's not happy about criticisms that his government isn't doing enough for poor families. why isn't the part time quarter rising? why is it not rising? not even among women without care responsibilities. when i the money, i get a job. the chancellor jumbled his words a bit,

but his message was clear. he finds part times popularity, problematic. we're turning one job into 220 hours 20 hours. that's 40 hours together, but you have 2 employees. we're working it. now we're in a situation our society's over aging. we have 200000 open positions in austria. the debate over working hours is growing and a lot of these countries, and in some cases it's getting rather pointed. because for many people, this comes down to a fundamental question. the people still have the will of to work. but labor economists say that's unfair, more people are working after all. and it's possible that some of the traditional incentives to work more might be changing. you still want to live in a nice house and that you have to live with your parents until you're 30 simply said, because the labor, my or the housing market doesn't offer anything. i think if they could work more and then would be able to buy that house if the like their parents were or their grand parents were,

i think they boards but the fact that it's not possible. so i think, i think the choice for a free time is, is not. i think it's exaggerates, of perhaps a bit. i think they, they still want to work and they still want to have a good show up. and they would like to live in the house, but i think that's not very parents, perhaps from the data at the moment. the other part timers, meanwhile, might be very much open to increasing their hours. it's also a completely different, a choice whether you go from 24 to 26 or you go for 4232 and i think there are really different groups. and sometimes we wanna, when we talk about the bar time, it's just one big container term with the question now facing governments is, how do you make that extra hour or 2 or 3 of work worth it for employees? both the netherlands in switzerland have pushed for more child care with mixed results. this was the effort has been tabled by the national council in band and the netherlands has postponed its child care promised by 2 years, citing budget cuts. countries. i've also struggled to change those tax measures. we

talked about germany has so far held off on scrubbing its income, splitting tax rules for married couples, which essentially incentivizes one order to work less. in austria, a debate over lowering wage taxes for businesses continues to summer. this is really a story about personal needs and the needs of a society. in countries like the netherlands, people can really work more to their own preferences. but that does have consequences for the overall labor market and for society. many of us may indeed end up working less, especially in fields where technology makes our jobs easier. but other sectors will still need more hours from fewer workers. how they get that. and what happens when companies are sector is compete with one another for an ever shrinking talent pool . it's also story about women. it's about how they work now and how they're going to work for the future. punch of that potential for more work and more hours belongs to women. now working part time positions,

which leads to other questions like how families organize themselves and what role the state plays and providing care options. and that's all we have time for for now . for this sort of business beyond, we thank you for watching. and we hope to see you soon. the 5 months into the war and gaza and deadly chaos around in a convoy has glaringly highlighted the desperation and climbing death toll among civilians. the cottage of humanity is something they haven't seen protected by guess this week on conflicts on is not to find the former egyptian porn minister and long time diplomat of what points as egypt have no choice, but to consider opening its border to gardens on humanitarian grounds. have the shocking scenes of suffering process conflict to an inflection point. now the sony welcome to complex own. thank you. tragic deaths around and aid comes.