Employment and working conditions of the most vulnerable workers: Addressing an ongoing policy challenge

Over the past two decades, labour markets in the European Union (EU) have undergone a significant transformation, marked by an expansion in non-standard employment and flexible working arrangements. While full-time, permanent contracts remain the dominant form of employment, non-standard arrangements, such as part-time and temporary contracts, have become increasingly common. 

Non-standard employment does not inherently imply vulnerability on the part of the worker. It can offer benefits for both employers and workers, including greater productivity and better work–life balance. However, vulnerability arises when non-standard employment is involuntary or when multiple non-standard characteristics intersect, such as involuntary part-time work and temporary status. 

This report examines vulnerability from a job-based perspective. Employment vulnerability is defined as a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing income inadequacy, employment insecurity and lack of workplace rights. It is distinct from the broader concept of job quality, which encompasses dimensions such as earnings but also includes dimensions such as work intensity, the physical environment and other aspects of working life. 

The report analyses trends in the prevalence of employment vulnerability across the EU-27 between 2009 and 2021 and examines how vulnerability relates to various aspects of working life. In addition, it assesses relevant policy and legislative developments aimed at mitigating vulnerability and supporting the transition to more secure and sustainable forms of employment. 

The EU addresses non-standard and precarious employment through policy and legislative acts. 

Principle 5 of the European Pillar of Social Rights underlines workers’ right to fair and equal treatment regarding their working conditions, access to social protection and training, irrespective of the type and duration of the employment relationship. It advocates preventing the abuse of atypical contracts and encourages fostering transition towards open-ended forms of employment. 

In December 2025, the European Commission issued a Quality Jobs Roadmap. The roadmap stresses the importance of businesses in the EU remaining competitive while upholding high labour standards; to achieve this, a clear, proportionate and innovation-friendly regulatory framework is needed, with social partners playing a key role in identifying practical solutions. 

In terms of existing EU legislative measures, the key legal instrument, adopted in 2019, is the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive. Also of importance are the Platform Work Directive and the Posted Workers Directive, although these forms of work and relevant policy measures are not explicitly addressed in this report. Many years before the adoption of the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, the Part-time Work Directive, the Fixed-term Contracts Directive and the Temporary Agency Work Directive aimed to curb the risks of precariousness by seeking to ensure that part-time, temporary and agency workers had the same rights as and equal treatment with workers on full-time and open-ended contracts. 

• Employment vulnerability increased across the EU following the 2007–2008 financial crisis, driven by an expansion in involuntary temporary and part-time work, but it has been declining since 2016 and is now below the pre-crisis level. 

• In 2021, Spain and the Netherlands showed the highest levels of vulnerability, while central and eastern European Member States reported the lowest. The nature of employment vulnerability differs substantially across Member States. Income inadequacy is the dominant dimension in continental Member States and central and eastern European Member States, while employment insecurity is more prevalent in Mediterranean and Nordic Member States. Lack of workplace rights contributed the smallest share to employment vulnerability across the majority of Member States, with the highest share found in Greece. 

• Women, young workers, migrants, Roma, people with disabilities and LGBT+ individuals (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people and other sexual and gender minorities) are more likely to experience vulnerable employment. The evidence suggests that these groups face barriers, including stereotypes or prejudice, difficulties combining working life and family responsibilities (especially women) and difficulties with legal regulations and with recognition of qualifications and skills (especially migrant workers). 

• Employment vulnerability does not automatically result in poor working conditions. Employees experiencing vulnerability in a single dimension have mixed outcomes in their working lives, performing better than non-vulnerable employees in some areas while facing disadvantages in others. It is the accumulation of multiple vulnerabilities that consistently leads to negative outcomes, such as poorer job prospects, limited access to training and development opportunities, reduced decision-making autonomy, a lower level of organisational participation, less favourable working time arrangements, unpredictable earnings and more limited access to various pay components. 

• Most physical health indicators showed no significant differences between vulnerable and non‐vulnerable employees. Workers experiencing multidimensional vulnerability show higher rates of anxiety and depression than non‐vulnerable employees but are less likely to report work‐related stress. 

• EU and national policy and legislation seek to offer both flexibility and protection. On the one hand, they support the flexibility required by employers and workers to adapt employment to fluctuations in the economic context and to personal needs. On the other hand, they put in place measures to ensure equal treatment between workers on standard and non-standard contracts, to foster the creation of – and transition to – higher-quality jobs and to prevent the use of non-standard employment in ways that might undermine workers’ rights or job security. 

• Policy measures have focused on (1) ensuring greater contractual certainty around working hours and working conditions for workers on non-standard contracts, (2) encouraging transfers from fixed-term to open-ended employment and preventing the abuse of temporary contracts, (3) regulating zero-hours contracts and reducing the use of other precarious contracts and (4) encouraging and enabling workers in involuntary part-time work to work additional hours. Many of the initiatives in these areas have arisen from or have been strengthened as a result of EU legislation. Because many amendments have been introduced only recently, evaluation of their impact on the balance between flexibility and protection in the labour market are lacking. 

• Vulnerability is a multidimensional phenomenon and requires integrated policy responses addressing the job-related, individual and intersectional factors that contribute to a worker’s vulnerability. 

• Non-standard employment does not inherently imply vulnerability. Policies need to offer flexibility and protection while preventing abuses of atypical work, which undermine employment standards. 

• EU legislation has strengthened the rights of workers on non-standard contracts, but legislation alone cannot resolve issues such as unequal access to training, which can further exacerbate vulnerability. 

• Effective regulation relies on robust enforcement, including sufficient inspection capacity, accessible complaint procedures and regular monitoring of compliance. 

• Digitalisation and AI are reshaping work, requiring continuous review of regulatory frameworks to safeguard job quality while enabling innovation. The Quality Jobs Roadmap and the consultation on the Quality Jobs Act seek, among other things, to contribute to this process, which will require the active involvement of social partners. 

• While not directly addressed in this report, discrimination and disadvantage linked to personal characteristics need to be tackled through legislation, policy and awareness raising to ensure equal access to quality jobs.