The persistent risk of poverty by work intensity of the household

In all countries, being in employment is the most important means of avoiding having income below the poverty threshold. Throughout the EU, the more people there are in a household who are employed full time, the less risk there is of poverty - and, moreover, the less chance there is of being persistently at risk of poverty. 

In the 2008 income year, less than a third of the people in the EU who lived in households where no one of working age was in employment (or where employment was only minimal - i.e. where the work intensity of the household was less than 0.2, meaning that, for example in a couple household, only one person was working during the year, and then only part time) were at persistent risk of poverty (Table 6). Indeed, the proportion concerned is only slightly below the proportion at risk in the year itself, implying that those at risk of poverty in a household with work intensity this low are likely to remain in poverty for some time, unless work intensity increases. Four out of five people living in a low work-intensity household with income below the poverty threshold in 2008 also had income below this level in at least two of the preceding three years.

The proportion of those living in such households with income persistently below the poverty threshold is especially large in Latvia (just over 70%) and Estonia (55%), and is also relatively large in Lithuania (43%). Only in the Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, Hungary and Austria is the proportion below 25% (in Greece, it is below 12%).

For those living in households with a higher work intensity - specifically between 0.2 and 0.6 (which still means that members of the household are far from being fully employed - for a couple household, it signifies at most that one person was employed full time during the income year and the other worked only 20% of the time) - the probability of being persistently at risk of poverty is much lower: only around half as high on average in 2008. Nevertheless, the proportion persistently at risk was still over 30% in Lithuania, and only just under 25% in Greece and Spain.

It is only when the work intensity of households increases above 0.6 that the probability of being at persistent risk of poverty declines markedly - to only 2% on average across the EU in 2008. However, in Greece and Poland it is still the case that 5-6% of those living in households with a work intensity of 0.6 or higher throughout the four years persistently had a level of income below the poverty threshold - indeed, two-thirds of those living in such households who were at risk of poverty in 2008 were also at risk in at least two of the previous three years. Otherwise, in all EU countries for which there are data, the proportion of people at persistent risk of poverty with work intensity this high was 3% or lower, and was under 1% in around half the countries. Those living in households with consistently high levels of work intensity, therefore, have very little chance of being persistently at risk of poverty.

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