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Job creation

Job creation refers to the process of providing new jobs, especially for people who were previously unemployed or inactive. Job creation is a key priority for EU social and employment policy. 

Topic

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Since 2002, the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) has been monitoring the employment impact of large-scale restructuring events in Europe and covers the 27 EU Member States plus Norway.

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Eurofound research

Research carries out research on employment and changing labour markets, restructuring and job creation in the EU Member States. The investigation of factors supporting or inhibiting job creation also requires access to company-level information. Eurofound has conducted four editions of its European Company Survey (ECS) since 2003, providing comparative evidence on company practices and their link to innovation and job creation.

Jobs monitor

Eurofound’s European Jobs Monitor (EJM) looks in detail at recent shifts in employment at Member State and aggregate EU levels, covering cases of job creation and job loss by occupation and sector.

 

Restructuring monitor

The European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) has recently explored the case of SMEs, meaning companies with fewer than 250 employees, as a source of job creation. It found that SMEs are likely to have contributed to improved employment levels and increasingly gain attention as a source of job creation in Europe. However, due to the large scale of the SME population, there is considerable heterogeneity among them, and not all are equally dynamic job creators.

Born globals

‘Born global’ enterprises – young companies with an international mindset – are also dynamic in job creation, despite their low share among enterprises. Eurofound research has looked at the potential of job creation in these new international businesses. It characterises born globals and outline their main strengths and weaknesses, as well as economic and labour market potential. 

Sector focus

A study on the creation of more and better jobs in home-care services highlights the persistent labour shortages in the health and social care sector. It analyses initiatives that were successful in either creating more jobs in the sector, or improving the quality of its jobs, with the dual aim of attracting new recruits and retaining existing staff.

As part of a pilot project on the future of manufacturing in Europe from 2015 to 2018, Eurofound gathered information on the reshoring of manufacturing and other value-chain activities to the EU and the resulting job gains.

Key outputs

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Reshoring – namely the relocation of value chain activities back to the home country or its nearby region – has attracted an increasing interest both among scholars and policymakers. The...

1 April 2019
Publication
Research report
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As Europe’s population ages, the number of adults needing long-term care is increasing. There are, however, persistent labour shortages in the health and social care sector; well-qualified staff are particularly...

10 September 2013
Publication
Research report

EU context

The European Commission’s Investment Plan for Europe adopted in November 2014 focuses on creating jobs and boosting growth by making smarter use of financial resources, removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. Building on this, the InvestEU Programme 2021–2027 will further boost investment, innovation and job creation by making EU funding simpler to access and more effective. 

Research shows that the strongest recent structural employment growth was recorded in the health and care sectors and in information and communication technologies. Both sectors have strong potential for continued job creation, along with green jobs, as highlighted in the Commission’s 2012 ‘Employment package’. 

The Commission has recognised the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to economic development and labour markets in the EU, and it supports SMEs through a variety of policies and instruments. In 2016, the European Parliament issued a resolution on how best to support the job creation potential of SMEs.

Eurofound’s work on job creation links in with the Commission’s 2019–2024 priority on an economy that works for people. 

 

European Industrial Relations Dictionary 

Eurofound expert(s)

John Hurley

John Hurley is a senior research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He took up the role of research manager in February 2012. He is responsible for the European...

Senior research manager,
Employment research unit
Publications results (108)

After the output falls between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009, the EU economy is again very close to recession. Real GDP has contracted in two of the last three quarters: quarter-on-quarter, real GDP growth was -0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011, 0% in the first quarter of 2012 and is

30 October 2012

With GDP growth stagnating, the unemployment rate continuing its upward trend, and unresolved sovereign debt issues in many Member States, it is not easy to be optimistic about the prospects for EU labour markets. The best news tends to be of the ‘it could be worse’ variety. The second issue for

19 July 2012

Significant ECB interventions in December 2011 and February 2012 have helped to stabilise, at least in the short-term, Eurozone sovereign debt concerns. A fresh focus on the essentials of economic activity reveals a weakening EU economy with an increasing likelihood that the Union is already in a

18 April 2012

Поради неотложната нужда да се намали изменението на климата и да се приспособим към него, екологизира- нето на икономиката е аспект с нарастващо значение във формирането на европейската политика. Еколо- гична икономика означава да произвеждаме продукти и да предлагаме услуги с използване на по

16 February 2012

Self-employment and job creation is a key policy area in Europe and is considered to be an important element in fostering economic growth and employment. The financial and economic crisis has had a negative impact on self-employment andconsequently policy focus has been directed at fostering job

24 January 2012

Consensus forecasts point to slowing growth in the EU during 2012, with some at least indicating a return to recession. Sovereign debt issues in a growing number of Member States – the response to them and anxieties regarding their eventual resolution – are one important contributing factor. The

23 January 2012

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

16 January 2012

This issue of Foundation Focus looks at job creation. The Great Recession has destroyed many jobs and the recovery has been shallow, with few new jobs being created. Where are new jobs going to come from? Eurofound looks at the care and education sectors as possible drivers of growth and at the

19 December 2011

През 2003 г. Eurofound стартира Европейския наблюдател на преструктурирането (ЕНП/ERM), който към настоящия момент е единственият източник на информация от Европа за преструктурирането на дружествата, предоставящ обобщени данни и възможност за последващо задълбочено изследване на отделните случаи.

01 December 2011

Structural change is a general characteristic of economic development, driven by shifts in relative productivity and demand, technological or socioeconomic changes. To adapt to a changing economic environment, companies undergo restructuring to maintain or improve their competitiveness and, hence

21 November 2011

Online resources results (44)

First company agreement on employment and working time in Catalonia

JEVSA is the first private company based in Catalonia in which an agreement has been reached on employment and working time, under the auspices of this Spanish region's "pact for employment". Signed in December 1998, the JEVSA agreement is based on a scheme providing incentives to promote permanent

Agreements on good employment practices in Spanish companies

A number of agreements on "good employment practices" signed in Spanish companies indicate a new direction in the 1998/9 collective bargaining round. The main features of these agreements are job creation and secure employment in exchange for wage moderation and flexibility, in order to allow

Active use of unemployment benefits - initial results and union unease

Belgium's policy of reducing unemployment through using unemployment benefits to fund work is going well. After a careful start, it received a boost in April 1998 from the National Action Plan for employment prepared by the Belgian Government in line with the EU Employment Guidelines for 1998. New

Eurocopter lands on a 35-hour week

While France's CNPF employers' confederation has been vociferously opposing the law - adopted in May 1998 - implementing the 35-hour working week in 2000, large companies have been negotiating agreements trading off "working time" for "flexibility". These agreements will be implemented prior to the

French National Action Plan on employment adopted

Following the special Employment Summit [1] in Luxembourg in November 1997 (EU9711168F [2]), EU Member States agreed a set of Employment Guidelines [3] designed to provide a framework for national action under four main "pillars" - employability, adaptability, entrepreneurship and equal

Prolonged union protests in the social sector lead to promises for the future

The "social sector", which has also been labelled the "care", "social-profit" or "quartiary" sector, is of growing importance for the Belgian economy in terms of employment. About 10% of all paid employees and 7.9% of the self-employed work in this sector, which includes voluntary and social

Unions propose relaunch of textile company

In September 1997 the Institute of Labour, the research and training arm of the Greek General Confederation of Labour, published a study on the modernisation, market repositioning and relaunch of the Piraiki-Patraiki textile concern. The study, which has been submitted to the Ministry of Development

Tackling the apprenticeships crisis

Apprenticeships, together with secondary vocational schools (ninth to 13th grade, around 15 to 19 years of age), form the backbone of the Austrian skill-formation system. They are a part of the formal educational structure, and are usually entered into at the age of 15, after completion of the

Tripartite agreement on Employment Alliance for eastern Germany

A year after the collapse of the tripartite "corporatist" attempt to revitalise the entire German economy (DE9702202F [1]), government, business and trade unions have succeeded in forging an alliance to boost economic growth, productivity and employment in eastern Germany. [1] www.eurofound.europa

Controversy surrounds dual pay scales

Over 1995-7, certain collective agreements in Spain have allowed employers to recruit workers at lower wages than workers in the same job grade who are already employed by the firm (the "dual pay scale"). Companies' objectives in reducing labour costs and workers' objectives in creating employment


Blogs results (6)
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At the very outset of its mandate, the new European Commission presented the European Green Deal, establishing the objective of becoming the first climate-neutral bloc in the world by 2050. The initiative emphasises the seriousness which the European Commission places on the climate and biodiversity

21 February 2020
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Economic disparities have been decreasing between EU member states over the past decade, but at the same time inequality has been growing within member states. Despite national level convergence, the gap in wealth and income between the rich and the poor is growing in most of Europe. Some of this

29 October 2019
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Over the past four years a special project delegated to Eurofound has looked in detail at ongoing changes in manufacturing on a global scale, analysed how the industry will change further in the future, and assessed what the impacts will be for Europe. Looking at everything from changes in tasks for

9 April 2019
The many faces of self-employment In Europe

While the Europe 2020 strategy actively promotes entrepreneurial self-employment as a means to create good jobs, policy makers at national and EU level are actively looking at better social protection for self-employed workers. Understanding this paradox requires looking beyond the ‘self-employed’

26 October 2017
New-generation cars boost manufacturing employment

Rising levels of employment in manufacturing in the EU since 2013 have seen the part reversal of a long-term decline in employment in this sector. Data from the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) database to early September 2017 show that, for the first time since 2005, the number of new

25 October 2017
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The EU has finally recovered all the net employment losses sustained since the global financial crisis. It has been a long and painful process. But there is at last growing evidence of positive momentum in EU labour markets, if not quite ‘animal spirits’. Many of those member states most affected by

26 July 2017
Upcoming publications results (1)

This report provides updated data on the scale of labour shortages and labour market slack in the EU and at Member State level and focusses on organisational policies aimed at attracting workers in shortage occupations. It provides lessons on steps employers can take to fill vacancies, whether actin

September 2024
Forthcoming
Publication
Research report
Data results (2)
24 October 2023
Reference period:
20 September 2023

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