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Topics: Working life

  • Minimum wages continue to climb across Europe

    Increases to minimum wages have gathered pace since 2010, with the highest increases recorded in countries which had the lowest minimum wages. However a large gap remains, with minimum wage workers in Bulgaria, the country with the lowest statutory minimum wage, earning just one-eighth the salary of minimum wages workers in Luxembourg, which has the highest rate.

  • Long-term unemployed youth: The legacy of the crisis

    In this blog, originally posted in Social Europe, Massimiliano Mascherini looks at the enduring issue of long-term unemployment among young people. Despite considerable improvement in the labour market participation of youth in recent years, the legacy of the crisis is still visible in the substantial increase in the cohort of long-term unemployed young people.

  • EU Agencies unite against harassment on International Women’s Day

    The Heads of the EU Agencies have pledged to communicate to their staff that harassment in the workplace is not acceptable, to ensure respect for existing laws and the staff regulation, to promote diversity at work, and to provide a trusted environment in the workplace.

  • Tune in at 09:30 CET on 8 March and watch: Access to and quality of public services in the EU - a debate on improving quality of life

    Eurofound and the European Economic and Social Committee, under the banner of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU, bring together representatives of the social partners, EU institutions, national and regional representatives, practitioners, civil society and academics to debate on access and quality of public services in EU28, as highlighted in Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey.

  • Evidence-based research is fundamental to gender equality in Europe

    Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March we invite you to explore the issue of gender equality in depth, to read about the different areas in which gender equality is most urgently needed. Eurofound assists in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies for all EU citizens and those that call Europe home.

  • Recent developments in work–life balance in Finland

    ​The European Quality of Life Survey explores a variety of aspects related to living standards, health, family and work–life balance, as well as people's happiness levels, and their perceptions regarding the quality of their society. The latest survey results for Finland paint a generally positive picture of the country in 2016, just a year before the 100th anniversary of its independence.

  • The Future of Manufacturing in Europe

    ​The pilot project on the Future of Manufacturing in Europe was launched in 2015 to explore the prospects for a globally competitive future in manufacturing and the associated implications for employment in terms of the number of jobs, workforce composition, skill needs and geographical dispersion throughout Europe.

  • Publication Alert: EQLS overview report

    ​The overview report for the latest European Quality of Life Survey is now online. Nearly 37,000 people in 33 European countries were interviewed in the last quarter of 2016 for the fourth wave of the European Quality of Life Survey. This overview report presents the findings for the EU Member States.

  • Composition of NEETs in Europe

    ​'NEET' is a broad label and includes young people in very diverse situations. This graph shows the composition of NEETs in the EU.

  • The hidden potential of Europe’s economically inactive

    In this blog piece, originally published in Social Europe, Eurofound Research Manager Anna Ludwinek looks at the substantial section of the population that is not working and does not figure in unemployment statistics, but retains significant employment potential.

  • The scarring effect of long-term youth unemployment

    Young people are more affected than other age groups by long-term unemployment. While long-term youth unemployment is certainly not a new policy challenge for Europe, it now affects a wider range of young people than it ever did before.

  • Pay inequalities come back into focus in post-crisis Europe

    Friday 3 November is European Equal Pay Day. In the following blog piece Christine Aumayr-Pintar looks at the issue of pay inequality, contending that far from being a fair weather issue, addressing pay gaps should be an ongoing priority for Europe.

  • Rethinking working time in Europe

    Working time is more than just clocking in and clocking out. ​In this blog piece, originally published in ​Social Europe, Jorge Cabrita looks at three reasons why working time in Europe should follow a life course perspective.

  • The many faces of self-employment in Europe

    ​In this new blog piece Mathijn Wilkens looks at the multi-faceted nature of self-employment in Europe – from the entrepreneurial independent self-employed, to those that find themselves in a more vulnerable position.

  • New-generation cars boost manufacturing employment

    Manufacturing is on the up in Europe. The latest data shows that, for the first time since 2005, the number of new manufacturing jobs announced in national media outstripped the number of announced job losses. In this blog piece Andrea Broughton and John Hurley take a closer look at the resurgence of the sector.

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