• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

Labour market

Overview

Labour market issues include employment, unemployment, participation rates and wages. In particular, in recent times, demographic changes have resulted in an increasingly ageing workforce. Labour markets provide the structure through which workers and employers interact in relation to jobs, working conditions and pay.

Labour market outcomes are influenced by the institutions and processes of collective bargaining, including the roles played by employers' organisations and trade unions.

Eurofound monitors developments in pay, working time and quality of work and employment in the EU. It reports on labour market policies and conducts research on new forms of work organisation and employment, labour flexibility and trends in job creation and labour market mobility.

In the context of an ageing population and increasing demand for care services in the EU, there is growing concern about the supply of suitably qualified care workers. Eurofound researches strategies for employment in social care to meet current demands and future needs are researched.

One area of employment that is playing an increasingly important role in European social policy is childcare. Eurofound research has taken an in-depth look at childcare for schoolchildren. It details developments in employment, demonstrates good practices in the childcare sector and takes a look at the future of the sector.