Publications by subject - Gender - 2011

The report describes the impact of the ‘great recession’ on employment and the job structure in the EU27. Quintile charts are used to give a simple, graphical representation of the extent of employment change in a given period as well as an indication of how that change has been distributed across jobs of different pay or skill levels.This technical background paper provides the full set of quintile charts associated with the 'job shifts' report. Read the full report and the executive summary.

This report describes the impact of the ‘great recession’ on employment and the job structure in the EU27. It finds that despite a net loss of over five million jobs between 2008–2010, employment continued to grow in top-paying jobs, largely in knowledge-intensive services and business services. Meanwhile, sharp losses in medium-paying jobs in construction and manufacturing led to a shrinking of employment in the middle of the wage spectrum. More jobs were lost to men than to women and employment levels of older workers grew while those of core-age and, in particular, younger workers declined. Part-time work expanded across the wage spectrum while levels of temporary employment began to recover quickly from 2009 onwards after having borne the brunt of the early-recession job losses. An executive summary and an Annex 8 (Quintile charts) are available.

Perceived quality of life is lower in the candidate countries of Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey than in the EU27, largely due to poverty. Women’s labour force participation is low and jobs in general are characterised by long hours and poor work–life balance. Families are important for subjective well-being, but the rates of approval for public services and trust in institutions vary. An executive summary is available.

Findings are based on Eurofound’s second European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS 2007). Quality of life is analysed in different social domains, based on objective as well as subjective indicators. The report addresses the perceived economic situation of households, family life, housing and local environment, health and access to health services, perceived quality of society, and subjective well-being, as well as interrelations between these factors. Read more in the report.

The health care sector is of increasing socio-economic significance in the context of Europe’s ageing population. Demand for care workers and staff shortages are expected to grow, partly due to difficult working conditions and relatively low pay. This situation has already led to significant workforce mobility within and outside the EU, and could serve to exacerbate skills shortages in the future. Social partner organisations have an important role to play in shaping the attractiveness of the health care sector. Read more in the report.