How many years will the young people entering the labor market now work?

BarcelonaDuring the last decade, the expected duration of women's working lives in Spain has increased by one year more than that of men. This progress has helped to reduce the existing gender gap, although they will still work on average 3.4 years less throughout their lives. Specifically, according to the latest data published by Eurostat, the expected duration of working life for those who started their careers in 2025 stands at 36.8 years on average in Spain: 38.5 years for men and 35.1 years for women. In 2016, the forecast was 35.1 years on average: 37.2 years for men and 32.8 years for women.

Thus, during this period, the expected duration of working life has increased by 2.3 years among women and 1.3 years among men, which has allowed the gender gap to be reduced from 4.4 years to the current 3.4 years. It is worth noting that Eurostat points out that this evolution is observed in most European Union (EU) countries, where the increase in women's participation in the labor market has driven greater than expected growth in women's working lives.

Furthermore, the data is framed within a generalized increase in duration across the entire EU: the community average has gone from 35.2 years in 2016 to 37.5 years in 2025, despite the decline recorded in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic. By gender, men's working lives were estimated at 37.6 years and women's at 32.6 years in 2016, while in 2025 the duration is calculated to extend to 39.5 and 35.4 years, respectively. As a consequence, the gender gap has been reduced on average in the EU from 5 to 4.1 years.

"Over the last ten years, the indicator has shown a sustained growth trend in the expected duration of working life for both men and women," emphasizes Eurostat, which attributes the narrowing of the gap to the increase in women's participation in the labor market. In Spanish territory, for example, more than two million women have joined Social Security since 2016. Currently, female workers exceed 10.6 million and represent 47.3% of the total employed.

Malta, where the increase is highest

By country, Malta recorded the largest increase in expected working life duration between 2016 and 2025, with 4.9 more years, followed by Hungary and Ireland (4.2 years in both cases) and the Netherlands (4.1 years). Malta's exceptional growth is mainly explained by the increase of 7.8 years in the expected working life duration of women, the largest increase recorded in an EU country. At the other extreme, Romania, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria were the countries where this indicator showed a more stable evolution, with increases equal to or less than two years.

As for men, the longest expected working lives correspond to the Netherlands (45.9 years), Sweden and Denmark (44.5 years in both cases) and Ireland (43.4 years). The shortest are recorded in Bulgaria (35.9 years), Romania (36.0 years) and Croatia (36.3 years). Among women, the longest expected durations are observed in Sweden (42.3 years), the Netherlands (41.9 years) and Estonia (41.8 years), while the shortest correspond to Italy (28.4 years), Romania (29.1 years) and Greece (31.8 years).