41% of employees in Luxembourg and 38% in the Netherlands and Sweden worked from home at least sometimes in 2024. Overall, one in five employees telework or have flexitime arrangements in the EU, but there are significant differences in the bloc.
Europe is set to fall 5 million jobs short of its 2030 Digital Decade target of having 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists in employment in the EU by 2030, despite employment in the sector growing fast – with an annual growth rate of 7-8% compared with an overall employment growth rate of just over 1%.
Close to one in five jobs in the EU (19%) could be classified as vulnerable – a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing income inadequacy, employment insecurity and lack of workplace rights.
Increasing regional disparities, a growing affordability crisis, and a lack of agency for renters are leaving a significant portion of the European population dangerously exposed to climate change, as highlighted in the latest episode of Eurofound Talks.
Technology is more likely to create new tasks than remove existing ones, according to new findings from the unique pan-European Working Conditions Survey. Rather than widespread destruction, the primary challenges facing the EU workforce as digitalisation transforms the European labour market, are shifting towards skills mismatches, generational divides, and worker autonomy.
The new European Working Conditions Survey 2024 Overview report shows that job quality in Europe is improving, with long working hours and physically arduous working conditions on the decline. The share of employees working more than 48 hours per week has fallen since 2005. However, inequalities at the workplace persist, with women experiencing a deteriorating social environment at work.
The generational housing crisis is the focus of the most recent episode of Eurofound Talks, as Mary McCaughey sits down with Marie Hyland, a lead author of the newly released report, Foundational challenges: The housing struggles of Europe’s youth.
Europeans are very concerned about extreme heat and other impacts of climate change like wildfires according to the results of a Europe-wide survey published today. It found that many citizens were also underprepared to deal with the increasing frequency and magnitude of heatwaves, flooding, or water shortages in their own homes.
Increasing economic divergence and a profound sense of precariousness permeate the European Union today, according to new results from Eurofound’s eighth Living and Working in the EU e-survey.
Young adults are disproportionately affected by soaring prices and rents, with average EU sale prices and rents increasing by 55.4% and 26.7% respectively since 2010, often far outpacing income growth. These averages mask even more severe problems in certain Member States, in larger cities and for younger cohorts according to Eurofound’s new report.
Tackling climate change is not merely an environmental policy goal but a fundamental necessity for maintaining job quality and economic stability across Europe, according to new analysis discussed on the latest Eurofound Talks podcast.
Is Europe’s traditional social model the key to its competitiveness? This question will take centre stage in Dublin on 19-20 November as political leaders, policymakers, social partners and civil society gather for Eurofound’s 8th Foundation Forum, marking its 50th anniversary.
The new episode of Eurofound Talks, published today, looks at whether AI is making work safer in Europe. The discussion takes the listener from the macro-level geopolitical considerations around AI, to how it is impacting workers on an everyday basis throughout Europe, and is essential listening for those interested in, or working on the topic.
Europe’s workers value safety, trust, and well-being above pay, according to the first findings of the flagship 2024 pan-European Working Conditions Survey. New findings reveal an overall upward trend in job quality but also expose a workforce grappling with new and persistent health challenges and divergent attitudes to the technological change.
Eurofound has launched a public procurement procedure for the establishment of a new Network of Eurofound Correspondents. This network serves as a crucial mechanism for gathering timely and relevant national-level information and analysis.
Digitalisation, such as the automation of tasks, digitisation of processes, and coordination through platforms is transforming the way in which people in Europe work. Many workers and businesses stand to gain from these ongoing changes, but some will lose out – potentially heightening labour market inequalities.
New technologies such as the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and virtual and augmented reality can help put greater emphasis on managerial and analytical tasks, reduce physically demanding tasks, drive the upgrading of skills and increase job discretion. However, some aspects of these technologies, particularly the Internet of Things, raise concerns that employee performance could be excessively
The shift to telework during the pandemic, and increased demand for more hybrid working arrangements in the future, is putting the spotlight on whether existing labour legislation is fit for purpose in post-pandemic Europe, according to Eurofound’s new report Right to disconnect: Exploring company practices.
Platform work is still small in scale in Europe, but it is increasing – and this not only in terms of the number of platforms, workers and tasks, but also the diversity of business models, matching mechanisms and types of tasks that are mediated through an online platform or an app.
Manual jobs in European manufacturing are being transformed as blue-collar workers take on more intellectual tasks. This is a consequence of the increasing use of digital tools and the growing importance of quality control in production.
