Europe is set to fall 5 million jobs short of its 2030 Digital Decade target of having 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists in employment in the EU by 2030, despite employment in the sector growing fast – with an annual growth rate of 7-8% compared with an overall employment growth rate of just over 1%.
The new episode of Eurofound Talks looks at why Europe has experienced a more profound slowdown in growth compared to other developed regions, and why greater labour input and higher human capital not translated into higher output per worker.
Is Europe’s traditional social model the key to its competitiveness? This question will take centre stage in Dublin on 19-20 November as political leaders, policymakers, social partners and civil society gather for Eurofound’s 8th Foundation Forum, marking its 50th anniversary.
The new episode of Eurofound Talks, published today, looks at whether AI is making work safer in Europe. The discussion takes the listener from the macro-level geopolitical considerations around AI, to how it is impacting workers on an everyday basis throughout Europe, and is essential listening for those interested in, or working on the topic.
Eurofound’s new report Structural change in EU labour markets: A generation of employment shifts details a dramatic rebalancing of employment away from traditional industries towards a burgeoning service economy.
Eurofound, in partnership with the European Institute for Gender Equality, has published a special episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast for International Women’s Day. The episode looks at women’s progress in the labour market and society over the past five decades, as well as sticking points on the path to gender equality in Europe, particularly related to the gender employment and pay gaps.
Eurofound analysis of the gender employment gap in the EU shows that its cost - when considering foregone earnings and missed welfare contributions of individuals to society, as well as the public finance cost - was estimated to be over €390 billion in 2023, corresponding to 2.3% of the EU’s GDP.
In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Deputy Director Maria Jepsen, and Barry Colfer, Director of Research at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), about European social change over the past 50 years, Eurofound’s role in these changes, how Ireland itself has developed and changed, and the challenges currently on the horizon.
Job retention schemes, one of the main policy tools used during the COVID-19 pandemic to safeguard jobs and protect incomes, saved 26.9 million jobs in the EU in 2020 and 2021.The schemes also reduced inequality by 0.15 percentage points, and lowered the at-risk-of-poverty rate by 0.5 percentage points.
Urban and capital areas have disproportionately benefitted from the digital revolution in Europe, with a high rate of knowledge and service-based jobs. By comparison, many rural areas risk being left behind, with unbalanced urban economic dominance further deepening urban-rural divides.
Prolonged labour shortages in the EU affect growth, innovation and the bloc’s ability to achieve its digital and green targets, as around 80% of EU employers struggle to recruit workers with the right skills. Currently, the skills of one in three employees in the EU are mismatched with their job, with 17% overqualified and 13% underqualified.
National minimum wage rates were substantially raised in almost all EU countries in 2024, reversing the loss of purchasing power that minimum wage workers experienced between 2021 and 2023, according to relevant calculations.
