Labour market policies
The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan sets out to increase the employment rate of the population aged 20 to 64 to at least 78% by 2030. Inclusive labour market policies aimed at increasing the labour market participation of underrepresented groups such as older people, low-skilled people or persons with disabilities are needed to ensure inclusive employment growth. At the same time, Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) which aim to increase employment opportunities for jobseekers and to improve the matching between vacancies and the unemployed play a key role in addressing long-term unemployment and existing skills mismatches. Examples of ALMPs include training, job matching services, recruitment subsidies, direct job creation for public work schemes or special programmes aimed at ensuring transitions from school to work. Public Employment Services play a key role in delivering effective ALMPs and providing income support during periods of joblessness.
Find the latest content on this topic below.
Disability employment policy tools for engaging employers - Background paper
This background paper looks at the EU policy context regarding the labour market participation of persons with disabilities, reviews the main barriers behind the disability employment gap and outlines policy tools and workplace practices supporting their employment, retention and career development.Foundation Forum 2025: Key takeaways
This paper provides the top 20 takeaways from the Foundation Forum 2025 which took place at IMMA Venues Dublin on 19–20 November 2025.Job tasks in the EU: Implications for skills and labour shortages
This paper provides new evidence on the types of tasks that are carried out at work in the European Union (EU). It highlights the changes in the recent structural composition of employment in the EU-27.Eurofound monitors structural changes in the labour market via its European Jobs Monitor (EJM) and European Restructuring Monitor (ERM), including the overview of legal instruments. Research investigates labour market dynamics, company practices, restructuring, and social partner involvement in addressing the policy-driven green transition, the advancing technological change and a global reconfiguration of supply chains. It aims to provide evidence to inform the understanding of the EU’s competitiveness and reinforce socioeconomic resilience.
This evidence on structural change in the labour market helps to inform labour market policies and industrial policy initiatives, offering knowledge on potential upgrading or polarisation of jobs, on how task requirements in jobs are changing, and on whether shifts in the employment structure are accelerating or slowing.
Investigating new forms of work, including digitally enabled such as platform work and ICT-based mobile work, helps to assess their prevalence over time, and how the opportunities or risks they create affect the employment and labour market prospects for people involved. Eurofound continues to update its Platform Economy Repository with information concerning the developments and regulation of employment in this type of economic activity.
The EU PolicyWatch database captures the measures introduced by governments and social partners in the Member States to alleviate the effects on businesses, workers and citizens of recent crises – COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and rising inflation. It also lists policies to support the digital and green transitions, as well companies that need to restructure.
Article 4 of the European Pillar of Social Rights focuses on active support to employment. This supports the right to timely and tailor-made assistance to improve employment or self-employment prospects, the right of young people to continued education, apprenticeship, traineeship or a job offer within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving education via the Youth Guarantee, as well as the right of unemployed people to personalised, continuous and consistent support. In 2021, the European Commission issued a Recommendation for Effective Support to Employment.
European Commission: Commission Recommendation for Effective Active Support to Employmentopens in new tab (EASE)
In recent years, labour shortages have increasingly been the main factor affecting labour markets in the EU and beyond. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic the prevalence of labour shortages has become a key concern for governments and social partners alike. Key drivers of labour shortages include demographic change, job quality and the green and digital transition.
In March 2024, the European Commission presented an action plan to tackle labour and skills shortages, setting out key measures that the EU, Member States and social partners should take to reach its 2030 targets on skills and employment.
European Commission: Commission sets out actions to tackle labour and skills shortagesopens in new tab
This is a selection of the most important outputs for this topic.
10 September 2024
Company practices to tackle labour shortages
This report provides updated evidence on the persistence of labour shortages amid declining levels of labour market slack in the EU and at Member State level. This serves as a background to the main focus of the report, which is on organisational policies aimed at attracting workers to occupations in which shortages are common. Case studies were conducted across sectors and Member States to gain an insight into how organisations deal with recruitment and retention challenges in a tight labour market. The report offers lessons on steps employers can take to fill vacancies, whether acting alone or in partnership with other organisations. It builds on previous Eurofound research that developed a taxonomy of actions employers adopt aimed at addressing labour shortages.
21 May 2024
Becoming adults: Young people in a post-pandemic world
During the pandemic, many young people had to change their plans for the future. While at the end of 2023 young people’s labour market situation was more favourable than it had been in recent years, many obstacles remained on their route to independence, such as the rising cost of living and inability to move out of the parental home. This report explores young people’s wishes and plans for the future – and the well-being outcomes related to these plans – in the context of the current labour market and housing situation and progress on the implementation of the EU’s reinforced Youth Guarantee.
27 March 2023
Measures to tackle labour shortages: Lessons for future policy
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 time. This report looks at measures implemented at national level to tackle labour shortages in the health, care, and information and communication technology sectors, as well as those arising from the twin green and digital transition. It assesses what measures are effective and explores the contextual factors supporting or hindering effective policy implementation and outcomes.
20 July 2021
Tackling labour shortages in EU Member States
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 interventions to tackle labour shortages, such as measures fostering geographical or occupational mobility, addressing skills shortages and underinvestment in skills, improving working and employment conditions, and providing better matching procedures.
18 April 2021
Disability and labour market integration: Policy trends and support in EU Member States
This report examines policy developments in EU Member States aimed at supporting the inclusion of people with disabilities in the open labour market, with a particular focus on the three stages of entering into employment, staying in the job and returning to work after an absence. It explores the mechanisms and effectiveness of more than 150 different policy measures designed to address the dimensions in place in the EU before the COVID-19 pandemic: job creation, labour supply, labour demand and contextual factors. In addition, it provides an updated analysis of early policy measures created in the wake of the pandemic that aimed to support the labour market situation of people with disabilities. A country case study on Ireland complements the study by outlining the complexity of disability and support systems from a broader perspective. The report builds on the lessons learned and provides policy pointers to improve the integration of people with disabilities into the open labour market.
24 June 2020
COVID-19: Policy responses across Europe
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 impacting the livelihoods of many citizens. Policymakers moved swiftly in an effort to mitigate the social and economic effects on businesses, workers and citizens. Eurofound’s COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database provides information on initiatives introduced to cushion these effects. Drawing on the content of this database of around 500 policy initiatives (April 2020), this report aims to present an overview of both large-scale government measures and collective agreements that impact on large groups of workers, setting this in the context of the evolving labour market situation.
Data: COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch
Researchers at Eurofound provide expert insights and can be contacted for questions or media requests.
Dragoș Adăscăliței
Research officerDragoș Adăscăliței is a research officer in the Employment unit at Eurofound. His current research focuses on topics related to the future of work, including the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs, the consequences of automation for employment and regulatory issues surrounding platform work. He is also a regular contributor to comparative projects monitoring structural changes in European labour markets. Prior to joining Eurofound, he was a lecturer in Employment Relations at the University of Sheffield, Management School. He holds an MA in Political Science from Central European University and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Mannheim.
Tina Weber
Senior research managerTina Weber is a senior research manager in Eurofound’s Working Life unit. Her work has focused on labour shortages, the impact of hybrid work and an ‘always on’ culture and the right to disconnect, working conditions and social protection measures for self-employed workers and the impact of the twin transitions on employment, working conditions and industrial relations. She is responsible for studies assessing the representativeness of European social partner organisations. She has also carried out research on European Works Councils and the evolution of industrial relations and social dialogue in the European Union. Prior to joining Eurofound in 2019, she worked for a private research institute primarily carrying out impact assessments and evaluations of EU labour law and labour market policies. Tina holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Edinburgh which focussed on the role of national trade unions and employers’ organisations in the European social dialogue.
This section provides access to all content that has been published on the topic.
