Riso, Sara

This compendium of articles presents a snapshot of some of Eurofound’s most recent research, and highlights important 21st-century trends in quality of life and working conditions throughout the EU. It is organised around the six priority areas set out by the new European Commission for a transition to a fair, climate-neutral and digital Europe.

We hear more and more about the platform economy, with the debate often revolving around the potential long-term implications of its growth on the labour market and the impact on traditional and established businesses and industries.

Trade unions in many EU Member States face the issue of declining membership. This is a fundamental challenge for organised labour, but it is premature to speak about the redundancy unions: when it comes to important decisions affecting the workplace, restructuring being one, trade unions remain a powerful mechanism of employee voice. Latest data from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) confirms that the presence of a trade union in the workplace is associated with greater employee voice and involvement in decision-making on restructuring.

Company restructuring may hit the headlines less in good times, but it remains a central experience in the working life of many. According to the most recent European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) data, just under one in three (30%) employees in the EU reported that restructuring had taken place at their workplace in the preceding three years. A similar proportion reported working in downsized workplaces. Large scale restructuring involving job loss is usually well-documented, and there is rightly a focus on what options there are for those who have lost their jobs. But what impact does all this have on those that are left behind?

Apprenticeships combining alternating periods at the workplace and in training institutions are well suited to providing young people with an entry point into the labour market and to supplying enterprises with skilled workers. This report examines apprenticeship systems and practices in the manufacturing sector in five EU Member States (Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy) and two countries outside Europe (Australia and the USA), exploring reform processes in response to new skill requirements arising from technological change.

Using data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), carried out in 2015, the ERM report 2018 examines how workplace factors may influence the relationship between restructuring (with job losses) and the outcomes for employees. It also reviews policy and academic research on good practice in restructuring.

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 incomplete. In a rush to deliver ‘quick fixes’ to the problem of youth unemployment, governments are falling short of devising well-coordinated policy interventions firmly grounded in evidence that could, in the longer term, be more effective and save public money.

Against a background of high youth unemployment, policymakers are paying more attention to encouraging young people to start their own businesses as a means of easing their entry into the labour market.

Across Europe, new forms of employment are emerging that are different from traditional standard or non-standard employment in a number of ways. Some transform the relationship between employer and employee, some change work organisation and work patterns, and some do both. This report identifies nine forms of employment that are new or have become increasingly important in Europe since the year 2000.

The European Commission promotes geographical mobility as a strategy to reduce discrepancies between supply and demand in European labour markets. While migration levels are low within and across EU Member States by comparison with other OECD regions, the proportion of EU migrants working in the EU is rising.