Platform work is a form of employment that uses an online platform to match the supply of and demand for paid labour. In Europe, platform work is still small in scale but is rapidly developing. The types of work offered through platforms are ever-increasing, as are the challenges for existing regulatory frameworks. This report explores the working and employment conditions of three of the most common types of platform work in Europe. For each of these types, Eurofound assesses the physical and social environment, autonomy, employment status and access to social protection, and earnings and taxation based on interviews with platform workers. A comparative analysis of the regulatory frameworks applying to platform work in 18 EU Member States accompanies this review. This looks into workers’ employment status, the formal relationships between clients, workers and platforms, and the organisation and representation of workers and platforms.

The information reported in the restructuring events database is gathered by an extensive Network of Eurofound Correspondents which carries out a wide ranging screening of daily and business press and online sources. The correspondents record large-scale company restructuring events in the EU28 countries as well as Norway. An event is included if it entails the announced destruction or creation of at least 100 jobs, or at least 10% of the workforce at sites employing more than 250 people. Cross-national restructuring events are also reported to the ERM.

As part of Eurofound’s focus on the situation of young people in today’s labour market, this project looked at the issue of long-term unemployed youth in Europe. 

The report, published in December 2017, provides a profile of the current youth labour market and describes trends over the past decade. The good news is that in 2016, the decrease of the NEET population was consolidated further.  However, youth are still more affected by unemployment and by long-term unemployment than the rest of the population. 

Long-term unemployment experiences have a detrimental effect on a young person’s well-being and have scarring effects on their lifelong economic outcomes. In particular, early long-term unemployment has lifelong negative effects on the future earnings prospects of young people and the quality of their future work.

While the youth labour market has improved considerably since 2014, one legacy of the recent economic crisis is the large cohort of long-term unemployed young people, which represents nearly one-third of jobless young people. This report provides an updated profile of the youth labour market in 2016 and describes trends over the past decade.