Breaking the cycle: Can improving job quality solve the EU’s labour shortages?

Labour shortages are a widespread phenomenon in the EU and affect a whole range of occupations. These shortages have serious consequences. If companies and organisations are not able to fill vacancies, this has implications for growth and can hamper innovation. The quality of services provided suffers if there are not enough staff. This can be the start of a vicious cycle: work intensity rises for the existing workforce, increasing the likelihood of stress and burnout and leading to absences and exits that exacerbate the situation.

The most recent edition of the annual EURES report on labour shortages and surplusesopens in new tab, published by the European Labour Authority (ELA) in June, concludes that labour shortages remain widespread. This report looks at 436 occupations and finds that for nearly all of them (97%) at least one country among the 31 countries that make up the EURES network (the 27 EU Members States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) reported a shortage in 2025.

Most affected is Italy where workers are missing in about 60% of occupations. The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium and Romania are also experiencing serious issues (Figure 1).

Looking at broader occupational groups, labour shortages are most frequently observed among craft and related trades workers. This includes plumbers, electricians and welders. Plant and machine operators and assemblers are also adversely affected, as are health professionals. The latter group includes nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics.

This shows that both highly skilled and technical roles are in demand. For example, most occupations held by craft and related trades workers require lengthy vocational education at the outset and regular skills updates as technology changes. Many of these occupations are essential for the green transition.

Some occupations experience structural shortages that are persistent over time and consistently reported by a large number of Member States. Notably, welders and flame cutters have remained high on the list over several years. The same is true of nursing professionals, specialist medical practitioners, plumbers, pipe fitters, and heavy truck and lorry drivers.

Research done by Eurofound and ELA concurs in pointing to the need for an integrated response to labour shortages. The activation of underused labour and better matching of supply and demand are two of the measures recommended in the EURES report and in Eurofound’s analysis of policy measures to tackle labour shortages. The EURES report specifically addresses the role of labour mobility. Whereas it can help to mitigate shortages and labour imbalances in the short term, labour mobility and transnational matching is not a silver bullet. However, as ELA’s interactive dashboardopens in new tab shows, for almost every occupation experiencing a shortage, at least one other country has identified the same occupation as being in surplus. This suggests that the imbalance can potentially be addressed through labour mobility between EU Member States.

The third element of an integrated response is to make jobs more attractive by improving job quality. Taking Eurofound’s framework of job quality as a starting point and using data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2024, it is possible to analyse the dimensions of job quality that are lacking in the shortage occupations identified in the EURES report.

The EURES report defines ‘widespread shortage occupations’ as occupations with a labour shortage that have been identified by EURES national coordination offices in at least 15 of the 31 countries in the EURES network. Whereas the EURES report distinguishes more than 400 occupations (using the International Standard Classifications of Occupations (ISCO) at level 4), these were grouped into somewhat larger categories (ISCO-3) to analyse job quality.

Table 1 shows that widespread shortage occupations are diverse and are characterised by mixed job quality profiles. Most occupations score above average in some dimensions but below average in others. The exceptions are, on the one hand, ‘other health professionals’ and ‘electrotechnology engineers’ as the only occupations that score above the EU average in all job quality dimensions. At the other end of the spectrum are ‘personal care workers’ with scores that are significantly below average in all but one dimension.

Table 1 shows that a challenging physical environment is the most common job quality disadvantage reported. In absolute numbers, 12 out of 15 shortage occupations report scores below the average in this dimension for all workers, with 10 of these occupations reporting statistically significant below-average scores (numbers shown in bold). Below average working time quality is reported in 10 out of the 15 occupations, with 6 of these being statistically significant.

Physical environment quality is lower than the European average in most occupations experiencing widespread shortages. This means that workers in these occupations report higher exposure to physical risks and more physically demanding conditions. This increases the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and accidents at work. While for some tasks a strong physical dimension is unavoidable, there are proven ways to improve health and safety in these jobs: physical changes to the workplace, organisational measures to reduce cumulative exposure, rest breaks, training, safe work procedures and the use of personal protective equipment adapted to the gender and body type of the individual.

Working time quality covers more than long hours. It includes short working hours that are not aligned with the job holder’s preferences, night work, weekend work, shift work, control over working time arrangements and predictability and flexibility of working hours. While it may be difficult to eliminate night work or shift work when round-the-clock coverage is expected, working time resources such as predictable working hours, flexibility, control over working time arrangements and the curtailing of long working hours can support improvements in the job quality and attractiveness of these occupations.

Although issues around physical environment and working time quality are common in many shortage occupations, they are sometimes combined with challenges in other dimensions. This leads to occupations with multiple job quality disadvantages. Personal care workers in services and cooks experience the highest number of job quality disadvantages (five). Common to these occupations are challenges in the physical environment, lower working time quality, and high levels of work intensity.

In Table 2, each occupation is ranked by the number of job quality dimensions in which they are lagging. Overall, all but one occupation with widespread shortages experience one or more significant job quality disadvantage.

Work intensity measures the rhythm at which work is performed during working time. Work intensity can be reduced by redesigning workload; improving task allocation and workflow; managing deadlines and priorities; and by ensuring adequate staffing. The risk of high work intensity in occupations experiencing labour shortages is increasing: the greater the number of shortages, the higher the work intensity for the remaining workers. High work intensity experienced by nursing and midwifery professionals and by personal care workers in health services support claims for greater investment in the health sector.

Exposure to low job quality in three dimensions – Working time quality, Physical environment and Work intensity – can increase the negative impact on health. Long and demanding working hours and intense work can lead to fatigue and increase the probability of physical injury and health problems. Physically demanding tasks that are highly repetitive and performed very frequently increase the risk of injury and a deterioration in the worker’s health. Shortcuts are sometimes taken to speed up a task and these too may increase health risks. For example, since devices to assist in patient handling take time to set up, they may be replaced by manual handling due to time pressure.

Personal care workers also report poor Prospects. There are many ways to improve prospects: offering employment conditions with greater protection; creating career pathways; involving workers in decisions about change; and framing improvements as investments, not costs. In occupations experiencing labour shortages, improving prospects is a measure that can be used to retain workers and to improve the attractiveness of a job. Poor prospects drive workers out of a job, and conditions for those who remain will worsen as a result of the ensuing vacancies.

The score for the Skills and discretion index is below the average for four groups of occupations. This job quality dimension refers to workers’ need to use and grow their skills at work and develop through the experience of work. Many actions can be implemented to improve skills and discretion, such as pairing less experienced workers with skilled colleagues and embedding learning into daily tasks; ensuring that less-skilled and part-time workers who frequently report lower access to training have training opportunities; aligning training better with workers’ own career goals; and giving workers more control on how they organise and execute their tasks. Where standardisation is necessary, autonomy should be preserved as much as possible, and all workers should be involved in process redesign, scheduling and workplace changes.

Interestingly, a below average score on the Earnings index, which includes the level and predictability of earnings and the fairness of remuneration, is least reported. Only two of the shortage occupation groups – cooks and personal care workers – experience a below average score for earnings for all workers.

The analysis of job quality in widespread shortage occupations shows that a challenging physical environment and poor working time quality are an issue in many of them. Another insight is that these occupations often experience multiple disadvantages in job quality, which limits their attractiveness. On a positive note, the multidimensionality of job quality also means that there are numerous and specific avenues of action that can improve different aspects of job quality in occupations experiencing persistent labour shortages. This can help to prioritise policy action and support company practices.