Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Get in touch with us nowDenmark's employment rate has increased over recent years and in 2022, the country had one of the highest employment rates in Europe. In a similar fashion, the number of employed people in Denmark increased over the past decade and was expected to reach nearly three million during 2023. However, there are differences between the genders, and young people have lower employment rates than middle-aged. Looking back at the past 10 years, the number of unemployed people declined significantly except for 2020, when COVID-19 hit the economy.
Salaries and work-life balance
As in the other Nordic countries, work-life balance plays a significant role in the Danish society. Hence, a work week of 37 hours is the most common for Danish employees. Although the average weekly working hours come close to 37 hours, there are some notable exceptions. Men generally work longer hours than women, and employees in the private sector also work more. Differences based on gender and sector also become clear considering salaries, and the gender pay gap is still a topic in Denmark. In 2021, men earned a higher salary than women – both in the public and private sector.The impact of COVID-19
Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), however, employment figures dropped significantly during spring 2020 and onwards. While over 2.8 million people were employed in February 2020, the number reached the lowest point in May 2020, before increasing again slightly in June 2020. Since February 2021, the number of employees in Denmark has increased continuously. A natural consequence of a decreasing number of employees is a growing unemployment rate. In the first quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate stood at five percent, which was considerably higher than usual. However, it fell rapidly through 2021. As a consequence of the increasing unemployment rate due to the pandemic, the number of recipients of unemployment benefits in the country increased by 30,000 in 2020.
