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Topics: European Union issues

  • More attention must be given to Europe’s working poor

    ​In this blog piece, originally published in ​Social Europe, Eurofound Research Manager Daphne Nathalie Ahrendt looks at the increase in the number of workers that are at risk of poverty and are materially deprived following the 2008 economic and financial crisis, and evaluates the potential social ramifications for Europe.

  • Publication alert: Exploring self-employment in the European Union

    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.

  • Annual review shows working life in Europe in transition

    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.

  • Four out of five workers in Europe happy with working time ‘fit’

    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.

  • Increasing numbers of working poor in post-crisis Europe

    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.

  • World Day against Trafficking in Persons

    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.

  • Estimating labour market slack in the European Union

    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.

  • Aspects of non-standard employment in Europe

    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.

  • Employment transitions and occupational mobility in Europe: The impact of the Great Recession

    The Great Recession has had significant and lasting effects on European labour markets, with a big drop in employment levels, which are yet to recover in many countries almost a decade later. It also affected the employment structure, accelerating structural change and generalising a pattern of job polarisation across Europe, in which employment in mid-paid jobs declined more than in jobs at the t

  • Europe’s shrinking middle class

    In the follow blog piece, originally posted on Social Europe, Carlos Vacas-Soriano and Enrique Fernández-Macías look at evolution of household disposable real income levels over the period 2004-2013, and the broader phenomenon on Europe's shrinking middle class.

  • Innovation in European companies

    New report http://bit.ly/innovchange exploring links between innovation, company performance and workplace well-being in European companies

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