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Topic

Non-standard employment

Non-standard employment is an umbrella term for different employment arrangements that deviate from standard employment. They include temporary employment; part-time and on-call work; temporary agency work and other multiparty employment relationships; as well as disguised employment and dependent self-employment. The most relevant of possible future developments of non-standard work, whatever their contractual form, are related to digitalisation.

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14 October 2026
New
One in 11 EU employees forced to accept temporary or part-time employment
The proportion of employees involuntarily on temporary and part-time contracts has declined across the EU since 2015. The rate, however, remains high in southern Europe and is increasingly concentrated in a few service sectors. The employees on these contracts are mainly women and young workers.
Dragoș Adăscăliței+1
Article
27 May 2026
Constrained flexibility: Involuntary non-standard employment in the European Union
This paper analyses the incidence, trends and micro-drivers of involuntary non-standard employment (INE) across EU Member States between 2006 and 2024, using a composite indicator capturing workers employed involuntarily under temporary contracts, in part-time work or both.
Carlos Vacas Soriano+1
Eurofound research paper
30 January 2024
Self-employment in the EU: Job quality and developments in social protection

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.

Tina Weber+2
Research report

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