In the rapidly changing world of work, the traditional dichotomy of employee and self-employed is insufficient to capture the wide diversity of self-employed workers in Europe today. This report identifies five categories of self-employed, reflecting the wide-ranging attitudes, income levels, and health and well-being among this diverse group.
Working life in Europe is in a period of transition. Economic growth has picked up, employment continues to grow for the third consecutive year and unemployment rates – while still being above the level of 2007 in the EU28 - are generally in decline. However, Brexit and pay inequality present challenges for the future.
This graph highlights the importance of education, indicating that in all EU countries except Finland, the at-risk-of-poverty rate is highest among people with the lowest level of education.
81% of workers say their working hours fit well, or very well, with their private life obligations. However men continue to have longer working hours (on average 6.5 hours per week more than women) and report more difficulties adapting working time to family life or other commitments.
One in ten workers in the EU is at risk of poverty, and 13% of workers are materially deprived and cannot afford basic household goods. Despite the fact that levels of in-work poverty have increased in Europe during the financial crisis, most Member States do not specifically address in-work poverty.
New findings reveal that worldwide work-related injury and illness result in the loss of 3.9 % of GDP, at an annual cost of roughly €2 680 billion.
The difference in working time between workers in the 28 EU Member States remains large and is especially marked between the ‘older’ 15 EU Member States and the 13 new Member States that joined the EU since 2004, according to new research from Eurofound.
Eurofound has launched a stakeholder survey in an effort to improve the way in which it reports on collective bargaining, and to transition from an initial focus on wage-bargaining outcomes to cover collective bargaining in a more holistic way,
On the occasion of World Day against Trafficking in Persons we invite you to download or order our publication on Regulation of labour market intermediaries and the role of social partners in preventing trafficking of labour.
Labour market slack is the shortfall between the volume of work desired by workers and the actual volume of work available. The aim of this report is to develop a more nuanced estimate of labour slack using EU Labour Force Survey data, which allows involuntary part-timers and inactive people with some labour market attachment to be identified and quantified.
This report examines developments in non-standard employment – temporary, temporary agency and part-time work and self-employment – over the last decade. It shows that the significant increase in the temporary employment rate between the late 1980s and the early 2000s has been halted and replaced by a slight decline from 14.5% in 2006 to 14.2% in 2016.
The Foundation Forum 2017 on 14-15 November will bring together up to 200 experts, policymakers, employer and worker representatives, national governments, thinkers and practitioners in Dublin Castle to hammer out the issues around upward convergence as a common goal of social convergence in living and working conditions in the European Union.
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.
