Vacas‑Soriano, Carlos
Europe’s shrinking middle class
23 Јуни 2017
The Great Recession depressed real income levels across European countries. But the impact was very unequal across countries and income groups. Countries in the European periphery have been more affected than those in the core, halting the process of income convergence between European countries that could be observed pre- crisis.
EU income inequality and the Great Recession
21 Март 2017
EU-wide income inequality declined notably prior to 2008, driven by a strong process of income convergence between European countries. The Great Recession broke this trend. After 2008, income convergence has been sluggish, while inequality within many countries has increased significantly.
Income inequalities and employment patterns in Europe before and after the Great Recession
13 Март 2017
This report addresses growing concerns about income inequalities in academic and policy debates by offering a comprehensive study of income inequalities during the years of the Great Recession starting in 2008–2009 (income data relating to 2004–2013). It has the twofold objective of adopting an EU-wide perspective and providing an updated picture of inequalities across different sources of income and in most Member States.
Employment effects of reduced non-wage labour costs
30 Јануари 2017
Reducing labour taxes or offering incentives to hire new workers could motivate employers to either retain staff who might otherwise have been let go or to create new jobs. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, both types of measure have been deployed in many EU Member States.
Recent developments in temporary employment: Employment growth, wages and transitions
15 Декември 2015
Temporary employment has increased since the 1980s in most European countries as a result of demands for greater flexibility in labour markets and subsequent reforms of employment protection legislation. This report presents a broad picture of temporary employment across the EU27 between 2001 and 2012 based on Eurostat data.
Recent developments in the distribution of wages in Europe
11 Мај 2015
This report gives an overview of recent developments in the distribution of wages in Europe from 2004 to 2011 – the period before and after the onset of the Great Recession. While the main focus is on the EU dimension, the report analyses...
Mapping youth transitions in Europe
23 Јули 2014
Young people in Europe continue to experience great difficulties in entering the labour market. Although the youth unemployment rate in a few Member States has started to fall, overall 23% of young European job-seekers aged 15–24 could not find a job in January 2014. In 2012, 14.6 million young people across Europe were not in employment, education or training (NEETs), accounting for 15.9% of the entire population of those aged 15–29. This report analyses the labour market situation of young people in Europe, focusing in particular on their school-to-work transition, while also monitoring their more general transition to adulthood. The report also investigates the ability of young people to remain in employment against the odds during the crisis and charts their transitions from temporary to permanent contracts. The report concludes with a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of selected policy measures.
Pay in Europe in the 21st century
13 Април 2014
The issue of wages has attracted particular attention at European level since the onset of the economic crisis. Changes in economic governance, notably within the European semester, have prompted discussions on wage‑setting mechanisms. While, overall, wage‑bargaining regimes have remained relatively stable over time in many countries, the most substantial changes were seen in Member States facing more difficult economic circumstances. This report provides comparative time series on wage‑bargaining outcomes across the EU Member States and Norway, discussing pay developments against the background of different wage‑bargaining regimes and looks into the link between pay and productivity developments. It also investigates the different systems and levels of minimum wages in Europe at present, carrying out an accounting exercise through a hypothetical scenario of a minimum wage set at 60% of the median national wage (with some alternative scenarios as well for comparison) in order to benchmark and evaluate minimum wage levels and systems in Europe, and to discuss the possibilities and difficulties of coordination in this matter.
ERM Annual Report 2013: Monitoring and managing restructuring in the 21st century
03 Декември 2013
The 2013 annual report from the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) presents a retrospective of over a decade of measuring the impact of large-scale restructuring activity in Europe. Based on a database containing details of over 16,000 large-scale restructuring events– each generally involving at least 100 job losses or gains – it paints a picture of restructuring trends across the EU Member States. The report sets out to compare activity in the period leading up to the economic and financial crisis (2003–2008) with the post-crisis period (2008–2013), in order to identify changes in restructuring practices and to pinpoint the sectors that have been disproportionately affected, in employment terms, by the global recession. Also included is a critical assessment of all ERM activities, including the two newer policy-oriented databases: public support instruments and restructuring legislation. Finally, the report places the spotlight on the phenomenon of offshoring, charting the decline in offshoring activity by European firms since the onset of the crisis.
ERM report 2012 – After restructuring: labour markets, working conditions and life satisfaction
05 Ноември 2012
The ERM Report 2012 focuses on the consequences of restructuring for employees. It examines which employees lost their job at the onset of the economic crisis, which of them found a new job and how both job loss and subsequent re-employment impacted on their overall life situation and satisfaction. It also looks at the impact on working conditions for employees who remain at the restructured firm. Both these studies, of those who lost their jobs and those who stayed at the restructured workplace, have never before been analysed by using common, EU-wide and representative, datasets. The report also provides an overview of recent restructuring using the ERM database. While restructuring cases reporting job loss have fallen since the peak of 2009, they still outnumber announcements of job gain. Several recent cases testify to serious problems in the once very promising alternative energy sector in Europe. The findings show that much of the recently announced job creation is in the hotels and retail sectors.