Human capital - defined as the knowledge, skills and other attributes that enable people to be productive - played a role in EU convergence in respect of national income over 2014–2021. Specifically, highly educated individuals have helped central and eastern EU Member States and regions to catch up with their western counterparts in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
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.
The lack of a single agreed definition of ‘just transition’ by the different interest groups participating in the EU Territorial Just Transition Plans (TJTPs) is hampering stakeholder involvement and progress on the issue.
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.
While the prospects for minimum wage workers in early 2023 looked gloomy – with rates in many EU Member States struggling to offset rising prices – the new year brings better news. National minimum wages were raised significantly in most countries, both in nominal and real terms, and also when examined in the context of the entire period since 2022, when inflation rates started to surge.
Europe Day is a celebration of unity, solidarity and harmony. While we may not have had much to celebrate this past year, one thing we can be proud of is how Europe has come together in the face of large-scale challenges and threats, showing that solidarity is the key to resilience and resolve.
The rising cost of living is the most pressing worry for 93% of Europeans, followed by the threat of poverty and social exclusion, according to a recent European Parliament Eurobarometer survey.
Ireland and Denmark are the most socially optimistic countries in the EU, according to Eurofound's Social Optimism Index, a newly developed composite indicator which measures six variables of optimism among people in Europe.
Ivailo Kalfin begins his mandate as Executive Director of Eurofound today, having been approved by the Eurofound Management Board on 5 March and presenting his priorities for the position to the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 13 April.
Trust in institutions has plummeted across the EU with trust in national governments in particular sending alarm signals across numerous Member States.
Eurofound has published updated monthly comparable data, converted to euro and standardised across 12 months, for 21 EU Member States and the United Kingdom for 2021
The employment toll of COVID-19 has been stark in Europe, and it could have been even greater had it not been for the adoption of unprecedented assistance measures in all Member States, supported by the European Union. But have these policies benefited different groups in the labour market equally, or have they cemented existing inequalities in access to support?
The employment fallout of COVID-19 has been a story of two types of service work. Office-based knowledge workers have largely kept their jobs and incomes while working from home; whereas client-facing service workers have borne the brunt of the lockdowns and the steep declines in demand for in-person services in restaurants, hotels, leisure and the arts.
Continued dominance of large non-EU service and work platforms could result in an oligopolistic market situation in the EU in the future. This could hamper the market entry of new players, endangering healthy competition and economic and labour market innovation to the detriment of platform workers and consumers, as well as the broader economy.
COVID-19 has left many people jobless, furloughed and financially vulnerable, often feeling isolated and pessimistic. It has become clear that the status quo is no longer sustainable or desirable. The political and economic response needs to take these changed attitudes into consideration.
Nearly half of people surveyed in Spain report that their financial situation is worse now than three months ago, and a similar proportion expect the situation to get worse in the future. Spain also reports above EU average job loss as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The first results from Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 online survey show a Europe grappling to respond to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with many respondents reporting high levels of loneliness coupled with low levels of optimism about their future.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) could expose existing shortcomings in employment arrangements and social protection in Europe, particularly for some workers in non-standard employment and vulnerable self-employed groups – who are more likely to be at risk of poverty and the impacts of economic shocks.
People aged 25-34 are most likely to be in arrears in the EU, according to Eurofound’s new report on Addressing household over-indebtedness. Among this age group, 21% of people surveyed in the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey reported being in some form of arrears.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, and the economic and social challenges that it entails, comes at a time when many vulnerable groups in Europe were already exposed to debt and arrears, according to Eurofound’s new research on household indebtedness.
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.
