New data shows how long the average Irish teenager will work for in their lifetime

Men work almost six years more on average than women but that gap has more than halved in the past 20 years. File photo

The average Irish teenager will work for 38.4 years in their lifetime, nearly two-and-a-half years more than the European average, new figures have suggested.

Since 2001, the amount of years of our lives we will spend working has also increased by more than five years. And, while men work almost six years more on average than women, that gap has more than halved in the past 20 years.

Statistics published on Wednesday by Eurostat show that northern Europeans have the longest working life, with people in the Netherlands (42.5 years), Sweden (42.3 years) and Denmark (40.3 years) set to be in work the longest.

On the other hand, Romanians (31.3 years), Italians (31.6 years) and Greeks (32.9 years) have the shortest working lives on average in Europe. The average across the bloc was 36 years.

💼🔧 In 2021, the expected average duration of working life for 15-year-olds in the EU was 36.0 years.
Highest in:
🇳🇱The Netherlands (42.5 years)
🇸🇪Sweden (42.3)
🇩🇰Denmark (40.3)
Lowest in:
🇷🇴Romania (31.3 years)
🇮🇹Italy (31.6)
🇬🇷Greece (32.9)
👉https://t.co/JDjW4qLSPV pic.twitter.com/ov1FYFIMWd

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) July 6, 2022

These estimates are based on how long a 15-year-old in each country is expected to remain in the labour force throughout their life. It uses data on life expectancy and the share of employed and unemployed people in the population for each age to derive these figures.

Using data from 2021, Eurostat found that Irish working lives continue to get longer. In 2001, the average working life in Ireland was 33.3 years. In 2018, that figure was 37 years. Now, it’s above 38 years with men working for an average of 41.3 years in their lifetime.

Ireland is one of seven countries where men have an average working life of more than 40 years.

Gender gap 'decrease'

Eurostat said that Ireland was one of the few countries to record a “noticeable decrease” in the gender gap where our working lives are concerned in the last 20 years.

In 2001, men were expected to work on average 12.6 years longer than women over the span of their lives. Now, the gap between men and women is 5.9 years, with women typically working 35.4 years.

However, the gender gap in Ireland is above the EU average, with just 4.5 years separating men and women’s working lives across the bloc.

Malta has made the most strides in bridging that gap, with men working 8.4 years more on average now compared to 22.3 years in 2001. Lithuania was the only EU member state where women worked more than men, an average of 1.3 years, while Estonia, Latvia and Finland had very small gender gaps.

Eurostat said: “Since 2001, the expected average duration of working life steadily increased in the EU from 32.0 years in 2001 to 35.9 years in 2019. In 2020, linked to the Covid-19 health crisis, the expected duration of working life decreased to 35.6 years.

“Despite the halt in 2020, the indicator has witnessed a constant growth in the years of working life over the past 20 years for both sexes. Although men are expected to work longer than women, the gender gap has reduced with growing female participation in the labour market.”