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This report analyses data from Eurofound’s 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey and its 2022 Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, as well as data from official statistics, to examine employment trends, working conditions and the social situation of young people in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia). Employment trends are also presented for Türkiye. This report is part of Eurofound’s ongoing effort to support informed policymaking in EU accession countries through the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). It is the first output from a project financed by the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) under the auspices of the IPA. Its aim is to provide knowledge that will support better-informed social, employment and work-related policies in the Western Balkans and Türkiye. It offers a comparative perspective between the countries and with the EU based on sound statistical analysis and expert consultation.

This report describes the implementation and changing features of job retention schemes in the EU between 2020 and 2022. In response to the COVID-19 health emergency, EU governments swiftly deployed job retention schemes to preserve employment, support businesses and maintain individual incomes. The report shows that, following an initial period during which job retention schemes underwent numerous changes in their eligibility and conditionality criteria, the institutional features of job retention schemes stabilised as the pandemic progressed. Furthermore, the report demonstrates that a high degree of heterogeneity in the features of the schemes was maintained throughout the pandemic and its aftermath. While some of the schemes expired with the end of the pandemic, others were transformed into permanent institutions of the labour market. The report also analyses the employment and distributional effects of job retention schemes, highlighting their significant effects in terms of number of jobs saved and share of personal incomes maintained during the pandemic. An estimated 24.8 million jobs were saved in the EU in 2020 through the use of such schemes. Furthermore, the schemes absorbed more than one-third of the income shock produced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and more than one-fifth of the income shock in 2021.

Ensuring greater social protection for self-employed people has been the subject of much policy debate in recent years. In 2019, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed. Sudden reductions in income during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of many self-employed workers. Using data from the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey, this report examines the working conditions of different groups of self-employed people. It analyses measures taken at EU Member State level to better protect self-employed individuals against the risks of unemployment, workplace accidents and sickness, and presents lessons learned from measures implemented during the pandemic.