CHAPTER 4: A COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY ANALYSIS OF LABOUR MARKETS IN THE EUROPEAN IWT SECTOR – 2

SWITZERLAND

  • Within the European IWT sector, Switzerland presents the largest average number of persons employed per company. This can be attributed to the fact that two of the major market segments of the Swiss inland navigation sector, tanker barging and river cruises, are characterised by company structures with a rather high number of employees. This could also be explained by the attractive tax structure of Switzerland which appeals to owners of large companies to have their headquarters in Switzerland.
  • In 2020, the sector counts 2,561 employed persons in passenger transport and 772 in freight transport. According to figure 39, 49% of the passenger transport workforce is employed in companies with more than 250 employees, while only 5% is employed in small companies (1 to 9 employed persons). Even though, to a lesser extent, freight transport shows a similar pattern with almost 48.2% of its workforce employed in medium size companies (10 to 49 employed persons) and 38.4% in large companies (50 to 249 employed persons).

 

FIGURE 39: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWT IN SWITZERLAND BY SIZE OF COMPANIES IN 2020


Source: Federal Statistical Office – Structural Enterprise Statistics
 

  • In terms of years of construction, the Swiss freight fleet is the youngest of all Rhine countries.19 The main reason is that Switzerland has a modern tanker barge fleet. Moreover, the average loading capacity of Swiss tanker barges was 3,196 tonnes in 2021, compared to the Rhine countries’ average of 2,350 tonnes. The high loading capacity confirms that Swiss tanker barges are quite new, as the loading capacity of new tanker barges has generally increased over the years in western Europe. These trends demonstrate the high investment rate and modern company structures of Swiss tanker barging.
  • While the number of IWT companies shows a stable development between 2011 and 2020, the number of employed persons has consistently increased. The growing trend is more visible in the passenger transport sector, which reports a higher number of employed persons compared to freight transport. Indeed, Switzerland is composed of many lakes, with many day trip vessels and has the largest fleet of river cruise vessels in Europe. In 2021, the Swiss river cruise fleet counted 200 vessels, which represented 49.4% of the European river cruise fleet.
  • Considering the development of employment by gender from 2011 to 2020, a substantial increase can mainly be observed for men working in passenger transport. On the contrary, the percentage of women employed in the Swiss IWT decreased from 27.3% to 20% over the period analysed.

 

FIGURE 40: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWT IN SWITZERLAND BY SECTOR AND GENDER


Source: Federal Statistical Office – Structural Enterprise Statistics
 

BELGIUM

  • Data for the number of self-employed and employees in the IWT sector in Belgium are taken from databases of the national insurance organisations in Belgium.
  • The ONSS is the National Social Security Office in Belgium, responsible for collecting, managing and distributing social security contributions for employees. Social security contributions for self-employed persons are collected and managed by INASTI. In the case of both databases, it is not possible to distinguish persons active in goods transport from those who are active in passenger transport. In both databases, structural breaks occurred in the year 2021. These breaks lowered the number of self-employed, while they increased the number of employees.
  • Self-employed: In 2021, a reclassification within the INASTI member statistics took place. Some persons that had formerly been counted as self-employed were now classified as company directors.20 This change implied a drop in the number of self-employed in the data, as company directors are counted separately.
  • Employees: In 2021, an extension of the categories of employees took place. In particular, more working time regimes were taken into account, not only the 40 hours regime. Besides, employees active in the loading and unloading of vessels were also integrated into the database of IWT employees of the ONSS.

 

FIGURE 41: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AND SELF-EMPLOYED IN IWT IN BELGIUM


Sources: INASTI, ONSS
 
Self-employed

  • According to INASTI, 976 self-employed persons were active in Belgium in the inland waterway sector in the year 2021. Of these 976 persons, 354 were classified as helping persons. The other 622 persons are classified as independent persons. Amongst the helping persons, the share of women is much higher than among the independent persons.21

 

TABLE 4: SELF-EMPLOYED PERSONS ACTIVE IN THE INLAND WATERWAY SECTOR IN BELGIUM IN 2021

MaleFemaleTotal
Independent persons52894622
Helping persons66288354
Total self-employed594382976

Source: INASTI
 

  • From a regional point of view, it is noted that two-thirds (653 out of 976) of the self-employed in Belgium have their company headquarters in Flanders, compared to 311 in Wallonia. Furthermore, three self-employed who are affiliated in the Belgian INASTI database have a company located in the region of Brussels, and nine are located outside Belgium.
  • The 976 self-employed persons affiliated in the Belgian social security system are mainly of Belgian nationality (772 persons = 79%). However, 143 persons or 15% are of French nationality, and 42 persons or 4% are of Dutch nationality. These shares are practically the same between male and female members.

 

TABLE 5: SELF-EMPLOYED PERSONS AFFILIATED AS BARGE OWNER OPERATOR IN THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN BELGIUM IN 2021 ACCORDING TO NATIONALITY AND REGION (IN ABSOLUTE NUMBERS)

Region
NationalityFlandersWalloniaBrusselsOutside BelgiumTotal
Belgian56420233772
French439802143
Dutch3560142
Other nationality1150319
All nationalities65331139976

Source: INASTI
 

  • It is not surprising to note that the nationality of a self-employed person is somehow correlated with the region where the person is active. For example, 68.5% of the self-employed with French nationality are affiliated in the French speaking part of Belgium (Wallonia). Regarding the self-employed with Dutch nationality, 83.3% are located in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium (Flanders).

 

TABLE 6: SELF-EMPLOYED PERSONS AFFILIATED AS BARGE OWNER OPERATORS IN THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN BELGIUM IN 2021 ACCORDING TO NATIONALITY AND REGION (IN %) *

Region
NationalityFlandersWalloniaBrusselsOutside BelgiumTotal
Belgian73.126.20.40.4100.0
French30.168.50.01.4100.0
Dutch83.314.30.02.4100.0
Other nationality57.926.30.015.8100.0
All nationalities66.931.90.30.9100.0

Source: INASTI
* Example: 73.1% of all self-employed with Belgian nationality are located in Flanders.
 

  • The following figure illustrates the timely development of the number of self-employed according to INASTI figures.

 

FIGURE 42: NUMBER OF SELF-EMPLOYED BARGE OWNER-OPERATORS IN FLANDERS AND WALLONIA *


Source: INASTI
* Numbers for the region of Brussels are not shown due to very low values.
 

  • Between 2003 and 2021, IWT employment of self-employed barge owners followed a decreasing trend in Belgium. Between 2011 and 2015, this trend was more pronounced than before and afterwards. This can be explained by the impact of the financial crisis that broke out in 2008 and had a negative effect on the number of companies, though with a timely delay. Another possible reason is different preferences of younger generations (more flexible lifestyles, less inclination towards the profession of a self-employed barge owner).
  • The development in Wallonia followed a more positive trend compared to Flanders. The sharp decline in 2021 is provoked by a change of methodology and not related to any content related factor.
  • When the total number of self-employed is split up according to age groups, the more pronounced decrease in the number of self-employed can be seen more clearly.
    From the year 2015 onwards, a certain stabilisation took place. Indeed, the decrease for the two younger age groups (18-29 and 30-44) ceased. For the age group 45-64 years, which contains the highest absolute number of persons, no real stabilisation is yet to be seen.
  • Finally, the age group of persons aged 65 and above (the age of retirement in Belgium is 65) grew in numbers between the year 2008 and 2013 and stabilised afterwards.

 

FIGURE 43: NUMBER OF SELF-EMPLOYED IN BELGIUM BY AGE GROUP


Sources: INASTI, CCNR analysis
 

  • Combining the evolution per age group reveals a considerable degree of ageing within the self-employed barge owner-operators in Belgium. This ageing is best visible when measuring the increase of the share of persons aged 65 and above among all self-employed persons.
  • Between the years 2003 and 2008, this share remained roughly constant at approximately 5%. From 2008 onwards, when it stood at 4.9%, there was a constant increase in the share, reaching 12.6% in 2020. This means that by the year 2020, almost 13% of all self-employed barge owners in Belgium were persons who normally would have passed the retirement age, which is 65 in Belgium.

 

FIGURE 44: SHARE OF PERSONS AGED 65 AND ABOVE WITHIN ALL SELF-EMPLOYED BARGE OWNERS IN BELGIUM (%)


Sources: INASTI, CCNR analysis
 

  • In 2021, the share was 11.2%, a small reduction that appears to be linked to the change in methodology that took place in the INASTI dataset. It is indeed obvious that company directors – who were not counted anymore as self-employed barge owners in 2021 – were of a rather advanced age, due to the longer career that is needed to become a company director. Therefore, by taking these persons out of the IWT employment data, the average age of the self-employed was slightly reduced.
  • Overall, it can be concluded that the financial crisis of 2008/2009 contributed to an ‘ageing process’ within the IWT sector in Belgium. The number of younger entrepreneurs was reduced, while the number of persons aged 65 and above increased. Even after the recovery from the financial crisis (after the year 2015), this ageing process continued, although at a lower ‘pace’. The main reason for the continuation was the further loss of entrepreneurs in the age group 45-64, while the two younger age groups largely stabilised in their numbers. In addition, an ageing process at the level of overall demographic data can be observed.

 
Employees

  • As pointed out above, the data on employees are taken from the database of the ONSS. This database contains two major structural breaks. The first break happened in 2007, when helping family members started to be counted as employees in the ONSS data. The second structural break is more recent and occurred in 2021. This second break consisted in another extension of the categories that are taken into account (more working time regimes and also workers active in loading and unloading activities).
  • According to this new definition, in 2021, 837 employees were active in Belgian inland navigation. Around 90% of them are registered in Flanders, 9% in Wallonia, under 1% are registered in the region of Brussels, and for less than 1% their location is unknown.
  • When splitting up the total number of employees according to age groups, several patterns can be detected. First of all, the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 also had a negative effect on the number of employees in IWT in Belgium, as was the case for the self-employed. The numbers tended to stabilise only several years later.

 

FIGURE 45: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN BELGIUM PER AGE GROUP *


Source: ONSS
* The values for 2021 are upward biased due to a change in the methodology.
 

  • For the youngest age group (15-29) as well as for the second oldest age group (45-64), the decrease ended in 2016, and an uptake began in the following year of 2017. For the age group 30-44, the decrease ended in 2017, and the uptake began in 2018. For the oldest age group (65 years and older), it is difficult to tell which trend was present, as the numbers in this age group are very low and fluctuate quite strongly.
  • A difference compared to the self-employed is that the age group above ‘65 years and older’ is very small within the group of employees and has not shown any clear increase (nor a decrease). Only a small share of employees are still active after the legal retirement age.
  • This stands in strong contrast to the extensive work activity in that age group for the self-employed, which has even substantially and lastingly increased in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis. This difference is understandable in light of aspects related to company succession.
  • The tendency of the self-employed to continue their activity at a more advanced age is a general pattern observed, and not limited to inland navigation. Such a tendency or pattern cannot be expected to be present for employees, at least not to a high degree.

 

LUXEMBOURG

  • Statistical data on employees in the IWT freight and passenger sectors, affiliated to the Luxembourg social security system, were collected from the General Inspection of Social Security on the basis of data from the Joint Social Security Centre (Inspection générale de la sécurité sociale – IGSS – sur la base des données du Centre commun de la sécurité sociale – CCSS). These data relate only to employees, not to the self-employed, active in the sector as of 30 September 2022 and cover also administrative staff.
  • In the freight transport sector, 135 companies employ a total of 4,670 workers affiliated to the Luxembourg social security system. This number has increased by 13.6%, from 4,110 employees registered in 2020 to 4,670 in 2022. The number for passenger transport is less significant and follows a decreasing trend if compared with previous years, with only five companies employing in total 270 workers. The high number of employees in freight transport in Luxembourg (compared to the small size of the country) could be explained by the fact that:
    – Luxembourg has good access to the inland waterway network in the Rhine region, and
    – Luxembourg offers competitive economic conditions for companies regarding the level of taxes and social security costs.
  • The negative economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have been contained in Luxembourg due to the large public support scheme that helped to protect employment.22 Around 94% of the employees in the inland navigation sector are male workers. In fact, the freight transport sector is dominant compared to the passenger sector in terms of number of employees, even when analysed by gender. Inside the IWT sector, the share of male employees working in the freight transport reaches 90% and 4% in the passenger sector, while the share of female employees reaches 5% in the freight transport sector compared to 1% in the passenger sector.
  • Regarding the duration of careers in the IWT sector in Luxembourg, around 46% of the contracts have a duration of between 1-2 years and 2-5 years together. Only 9% of the workers have a contract equal or longer than 10 years and 26% have short-term contracts (less than or equal to one year).
  • A large share of employees in the IWT sector in Luxembourg is composed of foreigners (99.4%), while only 0.6% have Luxembourg nationality. These foreigners come from both western and eastern European countries. Eastern European workers are almost solely employed in freight transport companies, while the majority of workers in the passenger transport come from western Europe.
  • Indeed, figure 47 shows that for passenger transport, workers mainly come from Germany with a share of 44% (in first place) and the “other” category of countries (33%) as illustrated on the graph. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia also represent part of the employees, but to a lower extent. Regarding the high share of German workers in passenger transport, it should be kept in mind that there are cases where German passenger transport companies shifted parts of their company, including large parts of their fleet and personnel, to Luxembourg.23
  • Since subsidiaries are separate legal entities from the parent companies, they are subject to the tax regime of Luxembourg, especially income tax and contributions to social security, which are often more favourable than those in other European countries.
  • Employees from eastern Europe, mostly from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania, represent 38% of the IWW freight transport labour force of Luxembourg. This figure seems to confirm the migration flows of inland waterway workers from eastern to western Europe, also observed in countries such as Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Foreign employees coming from Rhine countries, mainly from the Netherlands, Germany, and to a lesser extent, Belgium and France, represent 53% of the freight transport workers. Moreover, the share of posted workers employed in freight transport has risen over the last year, rising from 29% to 39% in the whole IWW labour force.

 

FIGURES 46 AND 47: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN IWW FREIGHT (TOP) AND PASSENGER (BOTTOM) TRANSPORT IN LUXEMBOURG BY NATIONALITY (AS OF SEPTEMBER 2022)



Source: Inspection générale de la sécurité sociale sur la base des données du Centre commun de la sécurité sociale
 

  • Most workers in Luxembourg, in both in the freight and passenger transport sector, are aged between 30 and 59 years. A similar age structure can be observed in most IWT countries for which data on the age of IWT workers were available. However, based on the available data for Luxembourg, it is not possible to delineate the age evolution of IWT workers in that country before 2020. Concerning freight transport, between 2021 and 2022, on average, the number of employees slightly increased across all age categories except for persons over 65 years old. Workers employed in passenger transport in all age categories steadily increased in number between 2021 and 2022. This can be explained by the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis which weighed heavily on the passenger transport sector in 2020 and 2021.

 

FIGURES 48 AND 49: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN IWW FREIGHT (TOP) AND PASSENGER (BOTTOM) TRANSPORT IN LUXEMBOURG BY AGE GROUP (AS OF SEPTEMBER 2022)



Source: Inspection générale de la sécurité sociale sur la base des données du Centre commun de la sécurité sociale
 

DANUBE COUNTRIES

ROMANIA

  • Romania is the largest Danube country measured by the number of persons working in the sector reported by the Eurostat SBS data.24
  • Similar to other countries, Romania has experienced a steady and substantial increase in the number of employees working in passenger IWT over the last years. From 2015 to 2020, that number grew by 71% from 277 to 475. This increase mainly stems from the growth of small enterprises in passenger IWT. The number of employees in companies with a maximum of nine employees almost quadrupled over that time, while the respective number with 50 employees and more increased only by 14%.
  • Likewise, the number of companies with up to nine employees more than tripled from 36 in 2015 to 139 in 2021, while companies with more than 50 employees remained constant at 2.

 

FIGURE 50: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN PASSENGER IWT BY COMPANY SIZE


Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS)
 

FIGURE 51: NUMBER OF ENTERPRISES IN PASSENGER IWT BY COMPANY SIZE


Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS)
 

  • Freight IWT is more important in Romania in terms of number of employees. Nevertheless, the total number of employees in freight IWT declined by 11% from 1,730 in 2015 to 1,530 in 2020. Similarly, the number of companies decreased from 91 to 74 in the same period even though they show an increase in 2021 (+ 6 enterprises).

 

FIGURE 52: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN FREIGHT IWT BY COMPANY SIZE


Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS)
 

FIGURE 53: NUMBER OF ENTERPRISES IN FREIGHT IWT BY COMPANY SIZE


Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS)
 

  • In short, Romania’s freight sector is far more important when referring to both the number of employees and turnover. However, the relative importance of passenger IWT in terms of employment has increased over the last years. In terms of the number of companies, passenger IWT even overtook and almost doubled the number of IWW freight transport companies in 2020.

 

SERBIA

  • According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS),25 in 2022 around 1,100 persons (employees and self-employed) were employed in the Serbian IWT. From 2010 to 2022, the number of employed persons remained rather stable across the years showing only a moderate increasing trend from 2020 onwards.
  • The increase in employed persons registered in Serbian IWT in recent years is directly correlated to the increase in volume of goods transported. The sector, which is mainly dominated by the transport of steel and agricultural products, has indeed experienced a boost due to foreign direct investment from China in the steel industry. The Chinese company that acquired the steel plant invested in technical renovation, thus boosting consistently steel production and raw material transport.
  • The pandemic of Covid-19 does not seem to have affected the sector in terms of employment since the year 2020 does not register a decrease compared to the previous years but rather an increase (+ 114 workers). One reason could be that, in Serbia, the vast majority of IWT workers are engaged in freight transport. The latter has been only moderately affected by the restrictions that were imposed to contain the virus. The distance restrictions that had to be respected due to the pandemic made passenger transport extremely complicated and had negative impacts on employment in this branch of IWT. However, this is barely visible in the Serbian data as the country’s passenger transport branch is quite small.

 

FIGURE 54: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWT IN SERBIA (2010-2022)


Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS)
 

  • According to the Eurostat SBS data, in 2020, the freight transport sector counted 944 employed persons, while passenger transport counted only 64. This pattern did not change compared to previous years as freight transport represents the core market sector of IWT in Serbia.
  • The majority of IWT workers are employees. In 2020, only 3.3% for freight transport and 14.1% for passenger transport were self-employed workers. This pattern is quite typical for many Danube countries, given the history of the company part of the Danube navigation sector. It is dominated by former state-owned companies and has only few small private entrepreneurs compared to western Europe.

 

FIGURE 55: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWT BY TYPE OF EMPLOYMENT (2020)


Source: Eurostat SBS [sbs_na_1a_se_r2]
 

  • According to the national statistical office (SORS) data, the average monthly gross earnings of persons employed in Serbian IWT amounted to around 760 Euros in 2021 and 917 in 2022, as calculated by the year’s average exchange rate.26 The average monthly net salary was instead around 552 Euros in 2021 and 667 in 2022. IWT earnings increased by around 20% between 2021 and 2022. The low wages phenomenon creates an incentive to move to countries with better working conditions and higher salaries. Indeed, 43 Serbian nationals were employed in jobs subject to social security contributions in German IWT in 2021. Concerning Austria, in 2021, the respective number lies between 32 and 42, depending on how many persons were registered in the Austrian AMS database as citizens of former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and who are now Serbian citizens. Overall, the number of Serbian ‘migrants’ in IWT is relatively low given the low wages in the country.

 

HUNGARY

  • Hungary is an important country for European inland navigation. It is situated in central Europe on the middle part of the Danube, and its Lake Balaton, the many river cruises on offer and its capital, Budapest, make it a major cruise destination.
  • The Hungarian Statistical Office (HCSO) produces data based on surveys on the number of employees both in passenger and freight IWT. However, data on employees of passenger transport exclude employees that work in areas such as onboard catering and bar services. The surveys aim at employees working at least 60 hours per month in a Hungarian company with at least five employees.
  • The vast majority of Hungarian IWT employees work in the passenger transport sector as, in 2021, it accounted for 484 workers, compared to freight transport, which counted 70 workers. Moreover, in the period 2010-2021, the two sectors experienced different trends. On the one hand, the freight transport sector shows a stable trend, remaining below the hundred units from 2014 onwards. On the other, the number of employees of IWW passenger transport illustrates a fluctuating trend. Indeed, while the number of passenger transport employees increased from 529 to 676 between 2017 and 2019, it decreased to 542 in 2020 and to 484 in 2021. The reduction registered in 2020 is a plausible repercussion of the restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19 and the consequent decrease in the circulation of people both at national and international levels. The number of employees working in the sector of service activities incidental to IWT (for instance, the maintenance services of canals and the operation of locks) increased consistently from 97 to 472 between 2010 and 2021.

 

FIGURE 56: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN HUNGARY PER SECTOR


Source: Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO)
Note: the employees taken into consideration in this dataset work at least 60 hours per month in a company with at least five employees.
 

  • Figure 57 reports the share of workers engaged in “physical jobs” within the total of IWT employees. The distinction between manual and non-manual professions has been delineated as a practicable, even though not precise, trace between onboard occupations (mainly physical or manual) and ashore occupations (white-collar jobs). In 2021, all categories of workers showed a higher share of employees engaged in physical jobs, therefore more likely to work onboard. For the period analysed, that percentage for passenger transport lies between 60% and 80%, reaching a share of 72.7% in 2021. Differently, the share of freight transport employees who work in a “physical job” oscillated between 60% and 70%, reaching 67% in 2021. The number of manual workers employed in the service activity sector decreased between 2010 and 2021. Starting with 73.2% in 2010, the latter reached its lowest level (46%) in 2018, after which a moderate increase characterised the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.

 

FIGURE 57: SHARE OF EMPLOYEES WORKING IN A “PHYSICAL JOB” (IN %)


Sources: Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO), CCNR analysis
Note: the employees taken into consideration in this dataset work at least 60 hours per month in a company with at least five employees.
 

  • According to a database of service record books maintained by the Shipping Authority of the Department of Transport of the Governmental Office of the Capital City Budapest, the share of shipping certificates that were awarded to women between 2019 and 2022 remained stable at around 11%. Therefore, it can be deduced with some caution that about 11% of employees on board of vessels in Hungarian IWT is female assuming that the margin of error imposed by the imperfections of the service record books does not correlate with gender. Only a small share of boatmasters’ certificates were awarded to foreigners (1.4% in 2022), who were mostly Romanians and Slovaks.
  • The Department for Shipping Authority at the Hungarian Ministry of Construction and Transport provides the data on the annual number of newly issued certificates of qualification. Except for 2022, the boatman certificate is the certificate most often issued in Hungary. The numbers of other certificates fluctuate quite strongly over time.

 

FIGURES 58 AND 59: NUMBER OF NEWLY ISSUED CERTIFICATES OF QUALIFICATION IN IWT IN HUNGARY



Source: Department for Shipping Authority at the Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology
 

BULGARIA

  • Bulgaria is another country with substantial access to the Danube. The Bulgarian Maritime Administration conducted a survey affirming that, in December 2022, the IWT sector counted 56 active companies and 475 employed persons under the National Social Security System.
  • Among the 475 workers employed in inland waterway transport, 19.2% are boatmasters, 50.5% belong to the nautical crew (below the boatmaster level), and 30.3% form part of the group of persons employed on board other than the nautical crew, such as the accommodation or gastronomical service staff. According to the survey, only the last category of workers is composed both of male and female staff, while the nautical crew is entirely constituted of male workers.

 

FIGURE 60: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN BULGARIAN IWT ON BOARD OF VESSELS BY OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY IN 2022


Source: Bulgarian Maritime Administration
Survey of vessel owners and vessel operators conducted in December 2022.
 

  • The majority of employed persons are Bulgarian nationals although the country is a destination for Serbian and Romanian IWT employees. Moreover, 35% of IWT workforce are cross-border workers. The Bulgarian National Employment Agency provides employment mediation services to jobseekers who want to work abroad. According to the data registry, in the period from March 2015 to September 2022, 66 Bulgarian workers were employed in non-Bulgarian companies as part of the nautical crew on board river vessels. The major destinations for Bulgarian IWT workers are the Netherlands and Switzerland, followed by France, Cyprus, Spain, Malta and Romania.

 

AUSTRIA

  • Austria belongs to the countries which have a higher employment in passenger transport than in freight transport in inland navigation. According to data from the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS), the number of employees in passenger IWT followed an increasing trend until 2016 and stabilised between 2016 and 2019 on a level of around 400 employees. The Covid-19 crisis caused a reduction in employees, but recovered in 2022, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The number of employees in freight transport followed a downward trend between 2008 and 2022.

 

FIGURE 61: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION BY SECTOR *


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
* The number of employees in freight and passenger transport represent the average numbers of employees per year. In passenger transport, there are fluctuations in the number of employees during a year, due to the seasonality of passenger transport activities.
 

  • The AMS data show a rather high share of female workers in Austrian IWT. In 2022, female employees corresponded to 36% of total IWT employees.

 

FIGURE 62: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION BY GENDER *


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
* Including between 0 and 8 employees working in maritime and coastal navigation per year.
 

  • According to the AMS data, the share of employees aged under 25 was 14.5% in 2022. Between 2008 and 2022, this share fluctuated between 15.5% and 19.1%. This last value was reached in 2019. Between 2016 and 2019, the share showed a constant increase, but dropped to 18.1% (2020) and finally to 14.5% (2022).

 

FIGURE 63: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION BY AGE GROUP *


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
* Including between 0 and 8 employees working in maritime and coastal navigation per year.
 

  • The number of foreigners among the employees in Austrian IWT increased substantially from 120 in 2008 to 191 in 2019. After a drop in 2020 to 133, the number of foreign employees increased to 218 in 2022. In the same period, the number of Austrian IWT employees decreased slightly from 305 to 284. The overall increase of employment in Austrian IWT between 2008 and 2019 can therefore mainly be attributed to a net influx of 106 foreigners between 2013 and 2016.

 

FIGURE 64: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION – AUSTRIANS AND FOREIGNERS *


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
* Including between 0 and 8 employees working in maritime and coastal navigation per year.
 

  • The largest groups of foreigners in 2022 and in previous years were of Serbian and Hungarian nationality. There are still also persons with ‘former Yugoslavia’, and ‘Serbia and Montenegro’ nationalities, although their number is decreasing. Hungarians are in second place behind Serbians.

 

FIGURE 65: FOREIGNERS EMPLOYED IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION BY NATIONALITY (2022)


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
 

  • The next graph shows the development of the number of foreign employees in the Austrian inland navigation sector, for the eight largest nationalities.

 

FIGURE 66: NUMBER OF FOREIGN EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIAN INLAND NAVIGATION BY MAIN NATIONALITY GROUP AND YEAR *


Source: Austrian Public Employment Service
* Only the eight most important foreign nationalities are depicted in the graph.
 

  • The Austrian Employment Service does not have data on the self-employed in Austrian IWT. However, according to the Structural Business Statistics of Statistics Austria, 59 men and 15 women were active as self-employed in Austrian passenger IWT in 2017. In freight IWT, 8 persons were self-employed, none of whom were women. In early 2023, Austria’s largest passenger vessel company offered traineeships for apprentices who earned 548 Euros in their first year of training, rising to 732 Euros in the second and 974 Euros in the third year.

 

SLOVAKIA

  • According to data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (Slovstat), employment (including both employees and self-employed) in Slovakian IWT gradually decreased from 2010 onwards to reach a relative low point in 2016. Employment figures showed a small recovery in the following years, mirroring a relatively stable transport demand from 2016 onwards. As in many other countries, the Slovak IWT sector also suffers from an ageing workforce. In addition, for several consecutive years there has been no inflow of young personnel due to the absence of classes for educating new boatmen in Slovakia. According to the Slovak Ministry of Transport, this situation can be explained by the lifestyle preferences of the younger generation (office hours and free time during weekends).

 

FIGURE 67: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWT IN SLOVAKIA *


Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
* Includes self-employed
 

  • Despite the rather weak employment trend, turnover in the IWT sector in Slovakia increased continuously during the same period of time. Between 2010 and 2020, the financial turnover doubled, rising from 40 million Euro to 81 million Euro. However, in 2021 the financial turnover decreased to 39 million Euro. As the wage development in Slovakian IWT shows, employment decreased during a period of low and stagnating wages (2010-2015), while it increased during a period of increasing wages (2016-2021). This pattern is explained by the fact that in times of low demand for labour, wages are also impacted negatively. In times of a high demand for labour, wages increase.
  • The average monthly wages of IWT workers in Slovakia showed some increase, mainly since the year 2016 and onwards. This trend is very similar to the trend in the neighbouring Czech Republic, and is explained by the overall economic dynamics in the second half of the decade between 2010 and 2021. The economic dynamics during this period, which was particularly evident in eastern Europe, was followed by an upward movement in labour demand, and consequently by an increase in the level of wages in many sectors of the economy.
  • A slightly decreasing trend in the number of Slovak nationals working in German and Austrian IWT in the last years can also be observed. In 2021, 47 Slovak employees worked in German IWT (compared to 53 in 2016) and 13 in Austrian IWT (compared to 16 in 2016).

 

FIGURE 68: AVERAGE MONTHLY WAGE LEVEL IN IWT IN SLOVAKIA (IN EURO)


Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
 

  • To summarise, data on IWT employment, IWT wages, IWT turnover and IWW transport demand in Slovakia reflect three different impact channels. One channel originates from the increasing economic activity and dynamics in the Slovakian and, more generally, in the central and eastern European economy during the second half of the decade 2010-2020. This impulse seems to have resulted in an increase in the wage level in the Slovakian IWT sector.
  • Although wages were increasing, employment was not affected negatively by this (no supply-side orientated labour market effect). Instead, employment stabilised, after a period of decreasing employment figures between 2010 and 2016.
  • The second impact channel originates from the development in transport demand. The correlation with employment suggests that the latter is, to a large extent, a derived variable, at least in Slovakian IWT, reflecting the trend in transport activity. Both employment and wages were therefore mainly driven by demand factors (transport demand, labour demand), and not by supply side factors.
  • The third impact channel originates from the general trend of the introduction of modern technological equipment on inland vessels. This trend resulted in a tripling of financial turnover per person employed, between 2010 and 2020. In other words, one employed person created a turnover three times higher in 2020 compared to 2010. This rise in labour productivity is most likely the result of the technological development, in this case the upgrading of the technological equipment on board inland vessels.

 

CROATIA

  • Croatian IWT plays a minor role, although the country has direct access to the Danube. According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, the IWT sector experienced a decrease in the labour force between 2010 and 2020. In 2010, the sector counted a total of 148 employed persons, compared to only 63 in 2018. This downward trend seems to be mainly driven by the freight transport sector, which shows a marked reduction of employed persons between 2010 and 2018. On the other hand, passenger transport remained stable over the years, registering a slight increase, without exceeding the number of 40 workers.
  • For the period after 2019 it is possible to notice an increase in workers for both freight and passenger transport. However, this increase cannot be attributed to an augmentation of the IWT labour force but rather to a change in the methodology used by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. After 2019 the scope of units covered by business demography statistics was extended due to the inclusion of additional categories of workers, namely persons involved in independent activities, who pay a lump-sum income tax.

 

FIGURE 69: NUMBER OF EMPLOYED PERSONS IN IWT IN CROATIA


Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics – Structural Business Statistics
Note: in 2019 there was a break in the time series. Therefore, for the years 2019 and 2020, the data are not comparable with data from previous years. Before 2019, data did not include natural persons involved in independent activities, who pay a lump-sum income tax.
 

  • The category of employed persons includes employees, self-employed workers, partners who regularly work in the unit, unpaid family workers and voluntary workers. Within the Croatian IWT sector, the share of employees on all employed persons is consistently high, even if it has decreased over the last ten years, from 92% in 2011 to 77% in 2020.

 

FIGURES 70 AND 71: NUMBER OF EMPLOYED PERSONS IN PASSENGER AND FREIGHT IWT BY COMPANY SIZE


Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics – Structural Business Statistics
 

  • Croatian IWT sector is mostly composed of medium-small companies from 1 to 50 employed persons. In 2020, passenger transport presented a high share of companies with 2-9 employees (56%) and a consistent number of individual companies (44%). Differently, inland waterway freight transport in Croatia between 2015 and 2020 showed a higher share of medium companies (20-49 persons) compared to small companies of 0-1 and 2-9 persons.
  • Freight and passenger transport present different labour force compositions from this point of view. While freight transport shows a labour force mainly composed of employees (97% in 2011 and 100% in 2020), passenger transport has a high share (about 50% in 2020) of other categories of workers, typically self-employed workers or unpaid family workers. Indeed, passenger transport workers are mainly employed in small enterprises of 0-1 workers and 2-9 workers.

 

FIGURE 72: SHARE OF EMPLOYEES WITHIN ALL EMPLOYED PERSONS IN CROATIAN IWT SECTOR (2011-2020)


Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics – Structural Business Statistics
 

  • As in other countries, the share of women among employees in IWW freight transport is low. In 2020 only 5 of the 49 workers employed are women, namely 10%. Data on women working in the passenger transport sector are not available.
  • It should be taken into consideration that Croatia joined the European Union on 1 July 2013. This might have impacted its labour market substantially, particularly sectors such as inland navigation, in which labour can be shifted to other Member States quite easily. However, an increasing trend of Croatians emigrating to other EU countries to work in IWT cannot be found, at least not in the German and Austrian data.27

 

OTHER COUNTRIES

ITALY

  • Italian IWT is dominated by the passenger sector, which is mostly developed in the largest Italian lakes and in the Venetian Lagoon. According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), the number of employees in that sector increased gradually and substantially for both men and women between 2013 and 2019. In the same period, the number of male employees in freight IWT increased by a comparatively small margin, while the number of women in that sector stagnated at a low level. One reason behind this trend is low waters, which have persisted severely in the last five years, causing a reduction in the volume of freight transported by the Italian IWT.
  • In 2020, the measures established to contain the virus Covid-19 and the consequent decrease in circulation of the population for touristic purposes provoked a reduction in the number of workers employed in both passenger and freight transport. This applies especially to male employees of passenger transport, which is mainly touristic, and experienced a substantial decrease, from 1,411 in 2019 to 1,078 in 2020.

 

FIGURE 73: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN IWT IN ITALY BY SECTOR AND GENDER (2012-2020)


Source: Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)
 

  • In 2020, about 12% of the employees in the passenger sector and about 19% in the freight sector had part-time contracts. For both sectors, the medium-term trend showed increases. Less than 3% of the employees in passenger IWT and about 6% of the employees in freight IWT did not have Italian citizenship.
  • Although at a lower growth rate than employees, self-employed workers in the passenger sector steadily increased in numbers between 2012 and 2019, before being negatively affected by the pandemic in 2020. As far as the freight sector is concerned, workers who own their own company have continuously decreased over time.

 

FIGURE 74: NUMBER OF SELF-EMPLOYED IN IWT IN ITALY BY PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRANSPORT (2012–2020)


Source: Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)
 

  • Counting employees and self-employed together, about 83% of all persons employed in Italian passenger IWT and about 97% of all persons employed in Italian freight IWT, work for companies in the Metropolitan City of Venice. Due to the geographical situation of the city, the public transport of citizens and tourists is entirely developed by waterborne means of transportation. Moreover, the city is a popular destination for national and international tourism and a strategic connection between the river Po and the Adriatic Sea. As the ISTAT figures closely resemble the Eurostat SBS figures for Italy, nearly 2,259 persons employed in passenger IWT represent about 11% of all employment in that sector in the EU-27 in 2020 (19,918 persons employed).

 

CZECH REPUBLIC

  • At the level of the Czech Statistical Office, the statistical dataset that is available and covers IWT, is an overall dataset covering the whole NACE sector 50 (water transport). This includes IWW, maritime and coastal navigation (both passenger and freight). However, the Czech Republic is a country in central Europe with no maritime waters, therefore this national database relates mainly to inland navigation employment.
  • In the Czech Republic, total employment decreased after 2007 and again after 2011, but has stabilised since 2012 at a level of around 600 persons. The share of the self-employed within total employment has been relatively stable during the last years (around 15-16% in the last five years).

 

FIGURE 75: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN THE WATER TRANSPORT SECTOR IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC *


Sources: Czech Statistical Office, CCNR analysis
* Although the Water transport sector (NACE sector 50) includes maritime and inland navigation together, a comparison with Eurostat data for employment in inland navigation shows that at least 99% of the Czech NACE 50 employment is inland navigation employment. The number of self-employed was calculated by deducting the number of employees from all persons employed.
 

  • The evolution of the average monthly gross wage per full time equivalent is shown in the next graph, for different branches of the transport sector and for the Czech economy as a whole. The evolution of wages showed a certain accelerated increase from 2014 onwards.

 

FIGURE 76: AVERAGE MONTHLY GROSS WAGE PER FULL TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE) IN THE CZECH TRANSPORT SECTOR (IN CZECH CROWNS) *


Source: Czech Ministry of Transport
* NACE sector 50
 

  • The higher dynamics of wages in the second half of the last decade becomes evident when calculating the average yearly growth rate of the wages for groups of years. For the years 2009-2011, the average yearly wage growth rate was indeed negative for inland waterway transport (-0.6%). For the whole transport sector this average rate was slightly positive (+0.6%). The next group of years (2012-2014) already shows a more positive wage development, both for water transport (+2.6%) as well as the whole transportation and storage sector (+1.2%). For the second half the last decade, the growth rates of wages were around 7% to 8% in IWT and slightly below 5% for the entire transportation and storage sector. They were therefore substantially higher than in the years between 2008 and 2014.

 

FIGURE 77: AVERAGE YEARLY RATE OF CHANGE OF THE WAGES PER FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT IN THE CZECH TRANSPORT SECTOR PER THREE YEAR PERIODS (%) *


Sources: Czech Statistical Office and Czech Ministry of Transport, CCNR analysis
 

  • The explanation for the increasing wage dynamics can be found in the macroeconomic development. A positive development began around 2014/2015, which is shown by macroeconomic and wage data for the Czech Republic. Favourable macroeconomic conditions boosted the country’s GDP, thus again positively impacting wages. Economic growth rooted mainly in significant inflows of EU funds which contributed to an average GDP growth of 2.5% between 2010 and 2019 through a strong domestic demand (public investment and private consumption).28
  • The labour market has substantially benefited from the economic growth. The unemployment rate has steadily decreased since the outset of the economic recovery in 2014. It remains one of the lowest in the European Union and has fallen from 5.1% in 2015 to 2.8%29 in 2021. The level of employment grew from 74.8% in 2015 to 80%30 in 2021. Further growth in the IWT sector might be dampened due to a tight labour market and increased shortage in labour. Low unemployment levels and shortages in labour supply push wages further up.