Overall subjective well-being has remained stable, but happiness and work-life balance levels have declined, and more people are having trouble making ends meet. This report explores patterns of change in the quality of life in Europe over the last decade, focusing on aspects of everyday life, economic factors, and on issues relevant to public policy, using Eurofound's multidimensional approach.
While arrangements for wage setting remain the competence of the social partners in line with national industrial relations practices, increasingly they are becoming part of a coordinated approach to macroeconomic policies in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Eurofound publishes a unique database on collective wage bargaining levels and outcomes in all EU Member States over the past decade.
The offshoring share of restructuring job loss in Europe peaked before the 2008–2009 crisis and has remained lower ever since, according to the 2013 annual report of the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) - Monitoring and managing restructuring in the 21st century. The report also presents a retrospective of over a decade of monitoring the impact of large-scale restructuring activity in Europe.
In the midst of Europe’s greatest recession, 40% of all EU companies have difficulties finding workers with the right skills. For innovative companies, this is even more challenging. This emerges from Eurofound’s third European Company Survey (ECS), launched in Brussels on 26 November 2013. The European Company Survey (ECS) maps what is happening in companies across the European Union.
While life satisfaction increased marginally across the European Union between 2007 and 2011, happiness and optimism levels have fallen and perceived social exclusion has increased, indicating a decline in overall well-being in many European countries. Eurofound’s new report is the first in a series of reports which covers trends in quality of life in Europe over the past decade.
Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) is a tripartite EU body, whose mission is to provide knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies.
