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Unemployment

Long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, and the increase in underemployed or involuntary part-time workers remains a concern in many Member States. Unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, increases a person's risk of social exclusion, poverty and inequality, and adds to the cost of social services and public finances. According to the European Pillar of Social Rights, unemployed people have the right to personalised, continuous and consistent support, including adequate unemployment benefits of reasonable duration.

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Recent updates

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This background paper focuses on one important aspect of social protection: unemployment benefits, both first tier (usually contributory) and lower tier (predominantly tax-based, non-contributory and means-tested). Unemployment benefits help to...

2 February 2024
Publication
Customised report
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Presentation made at the 'Informal meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers (EPSCO)' by Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director, Eurofound and Prof. dr. Paul Schoukens, Full Professor, KU Leuven. Belgian Presidency...

Presentation

Data

EU PolicyWatch database (measures to support unemployed people)

Eurofound expert(s)

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Massimiliano Mascherini has been Head of the Social Policies unit at Eurofound since October 2019. He joined Eurofound in 2009 as a research manager, designing and coordinating...

Head of Unit,
Social policies research unit
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Tadas Leončikas is Head of the Employment unit at Eurofound since September 2022. Prior to this, he was a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit, managing the European...

Head of Unit,
Employment research unit
Publications results (18)

This background paper focuses on one important aspect of social protection: unemployment benefits, both first tier (usually contributory) and lower tier (predominantly tax-based, non-contributory and means-tested). Unemployment benefits help to cushion the impact of job loss on household finances an

02 February 2024

As economies begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, labour shortages are becoming increasingly evident despite the impact of the war in Ukraine on energy and commodity prices. These include shortages exacerbated by the crisis in some sectors and professions where they had been endemic for some

28 March 2023

The fifth round of Eurofound's e-survey, fielded from 25 March to 2 May 2022, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe two years after COVID-19 was first detected on the European continent. It also explores the reality of living in a new era of uncertainty caused by t

07 July 2022

While unemployment is still a huge challenge in Europe, some countries, sectors and occupations are experiencing labour shortages. This report explores various approaches to identifying labour shortages and maps national policy debates around the issue. It documents public and social partner

20 July 2021

Disclaimer - Please note that this report was updated with revised data (specifically for Bulgaria) on 23 March 2021.This report sets out to assess the initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment in Europe (up to Q2 2020), including its effects across sectors and on different categories of

11 March 2021

The uneven impact of the 2008–2013 economic crisis on Member States brought upward convergence to the fore in EU political debates. The focus was on orienting social policy towards getting the EU back on track, as encapsulated in the European Pillar of Social Rights. However, the meaning of the conc

30 September 2020

This report presents the findings of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, carried out by Eurofound to capture the far-reaching implications of the pandemic for the way people live and work across Europe. The survey was fielded online.

28 September 2020

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of individuals and societies, including on the economy and labour markets, is unprecedented. The impact of the global health emergency has placed a growing number of businesses under threat, putting the jobs of more and more workers at risk and

24 June 2020

In the space of just a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has radically transformed the lives of people around the globe. Apart from the devastating health consequences on people directly affected by the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic has had major implications for the

06 May 2020

The European Pillar of Social Rights is designed to act as a compass for a renewed process of upward convergence among Member States towards better working and living conditions. It is accompanied by a Social Scoreboard to monitor the progress made by Member States. This policy brief presents the

10 December 2019

Online resources results (67)

Trade unions and unemployed associations defend privacy of jobless

In early 1999, Belgian Members of Parliament amended a government bill so as to limit the right of inspectors from the National Office for Employment to visit the homes of unemployed people and benefit claimants unannounced. The debate gave trade unions an opportunity to express their opposition to

35-hour week gets off to a troubled start

Late 1998 and early 1999 saw the first agreements between the social partners aimed at introducing the 35-hour working week in Spain, in order to help create jobs. However, the deals - mainly concluded in regional and local authorities - have met opposition from central government and criticism from

Belgian labour market policy unrealistic, says report

The latest annual evaluation report on Belgian employment policy was published on 25 November 1998. The report ("Federal employment policy. Evaluation report 1998", M Jadot, Federal Ministry of Employment and Labour, Brussels, November 1998) is a performance review carried out by the Ministry of

Tripartite employment plan signed in Galicia

In July 1998, the employers' associations, trade unions and autonomous government of Galicia signed a set of "agreements on measures for growth and employment in Galicia 1998-2001", also known as the "Galician Employment Plan". This is the first example of such tripartite social concertation in this

Trends in trade union membership

Trade union membership in Spain began to recover in the 1990s following a serious decline in the 1980s. Certain developments have encouraged greater membership amongst women, skilled workers and public employees, though it remains low amongst unemployed people and those in insecure jobs (mainly

Agensud to take role in employment policies

After numerous delays due to disagreements among the parties in the governing parliamentary majority, in summer 1998 the Government finally defined the main features of Agensud, the agency for job creation in the South of Italy, which will take the place of the IRI state-owned holding company

Third reform of labour market policy is underway

As a consequence of the high level of unemployment at the beginning of the decade and the record low unemployment rate at the end of it, Danish labour market policy has been adjusted several times during the 1990s, first in 1994 and later in 1996.

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

Bill on regulation of labour relations

In June 1998, the Greek Minister of Labour and Social Security announced a bill on the "regulation of labour relations and other provisions", which seeks to regulate various aspects of industrial relations, both in the private and public sector.

Labour market reform facing stiff opposition

In the search for a remedy for Finland's long-running mass unemployment, in mid-1998 the opposition Centre Party proposed a labour market reform with its ideological roots in the UK Labour Party. Trade unions are trying to resist the reform at an early stage, fearing that it will undermine the


Blogs results (9)
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​​​​​​​To date, close to six million workers in the EU have lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Many businesses have closed their doors forever or been pushed to the brink, bringing severe financial and psychological hardship to the individuals and families affected. However, the toll of the pandemic

9 February 2021
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The employment fallout of COVID-19 has been a story of two types of service work. Office-based knowledge workers have largely kept their jobs and incomes while participating in the huge and apparently successful ad hoc social experiment in working from home. Client-facing service workers have borne

2 February 2021
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​​​​​​​While women appear to be more resilient than men to COVID-19 in terms of health outcomes, that is not the case when it comes to the economic and social fallout. Measures taken by governments to control the spread of the virus are exacerbating gender divides in unemployment, domestic labour

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While we now know that the idea that ‘COVID-19 only affects older people’ is fake news, the first weeks of the pandemic have shown that young people are in general more resilient than older people to the disease. But are they also more resilient to its social and economic impacts?

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The impact of COVID-19 continues to create chaos in people’s lives across Europe and the world. The economy is heading towards another major dip, and a sense of general insecurity pervades. The daunting challenges confronting health services and projections on the long-term impact of the crisis

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Europe has weathered a number of storms in recent years, yet despite the Great Recession, the migration crisis and the challenges posed by Brexit, the EU continues on a stable path to economic recovery, closer cooperation and cohesion. However, the legacy of the crisis lives on in the number of

3 May 2018
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In this blog, originally posted in Social Europe, Massimiliano Mascherini looks at the enduring issue of long-term unemployment among young people. Despite considerable improvement in the labour market participation of youth in recent years, the legacy of the crisis is still visible in the

17 April 2018
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In this blog piece, originally published in Social Europe, Eurofound Research Manager Anna Ludwinek looks at the substantial section of the population that is not working and does not figure in unemployment statistics, but retains significant employment potential.

20 December 2017
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A key priority for EU policy makers is to combat high levels of youth unemployment. Supporting young people to start a new business is increasingly regarded as a way to achieve this goal. And yet the understanding of what drives the success and failure of youth entrepreneurship policies remains

18 April 2016
Upcoming publications results (1)

Social protection can include a range of entitlements to monetary and in-kind benefits. Eurofound’s project focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits. Social protection can provide a safety net for people who are negatively impacted by the green and digital transitions. During the COVID-19

September 2024

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