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Labour market participation

The declining number of people active in the labour market makes increased labour force participation one of the primary drivers behind labour market policies. The European Employment Strategy promotes active ageing, gender equality and the integration in the labour market of young people, older workers, people with disabilities, migrants, low-skilled and other vulnerable groups. The employment rate, in other words the proportion of the working age population that is in employment, is considered to be a key social indicator for analytical purposes when studying developments within labour markets.

Topic

Recent updates

Eurofound expert(s)

John Hurley

John Hurley

John Hurley is a senior research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He took up the role of research manager in February 2012. He is responsible for the European...

Senior research manager,
Employment research unit
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Carlos Vacas‑Soriano

Carlos Vacas Soriano is a research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He works on topics related to wage and income inequalities, minimum wages, low pay, job quality...

Research manager,
Employment research unit
Publications results (111)

Policy lessons from the fifth EWCS: The pursuit of more and better jobs

This report examines the evidence and policy lessons that can be drawn from the findings of the fifth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) carried out in 2010. The focus is on the links between working conditions and labour market participation in the light of the EU’s longstanding policy

25 September 2014
Publication
Research report
Working conditions
Labour market policies
Labour market participation
Job quality
Employment and labour markets
Working conditions and sustainable work

Mapping youth transitions in Europe

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

23 July 2014
Publication
Research report
Youth
NEETs
Inclusive labour markets
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in Iceland

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country of Iceland. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work in Iceland; to examine how the

22 July 2013
Publication
Research report
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in Montenegro

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country of Montenegro. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work in Montenegro, to examine how

22 July 2013
Publication
Research report
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in Croatia

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU acceding country of Croatia. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work in Croatia; to examine how the fight

27 June 2013
Publication
Research report
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in 27 EU Member States and Norway: Approaches and measures since 2008

Since the publication of previous reports on how undeclared work is being tackled in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU27) and Norway (Eurofound, 2008, 2009), the ongoing recession took hold. The aim of this report is to provide an updated overview of the policy approaches and measures

09 June 2013
Publication
Research report
Undeclared work
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in Croatia and four EU candidate countries

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in Croatia and four EU candidate countries: Iceland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey. The objectives are to analyse the magnitude and

09 June 2013
Publication
Research report
Undeclared work
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work

03 June 2013
Publication
Research report
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Tackling undeclared work in Turkey

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country Turkey. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work in Turkey; to examine how the fight

03 June 2013
Publication
Research report
Structural change
Fraudulent work
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

Building intercultural bridges in European cities: Lessons for local migrant integration policy

This report briefly summarises the policy relevant experiences of the CLIP network (cities for local integration policy) of more than 35 European cities in 22 countries over a period of five years from 2006 to 2010. CLIP was founded with the objective of improving local integration policy for

06 May 2013
Publication
Research report
Social inclusion
Living conditions and quality of life
Social policies
Migration and mobility
Labour market participation
Promoting social cohesion and convergence
Online resources results (34)

Spain: New findings on labour market performance of university graduates

The 2013–2014 annual report providing data on the Spanish university system focuses on the graduates of the 2005–2006 academic year, describing their subsequent labour market situation, including unemployment rates, self-employment, type of contract, income and mobility. In general, the data show

17 október 2014
Article
Labour market policies
Labour market participation
NEETs
Youth
Working conditions
Employment and labour markets
Working conditions and sustainable work

Union strategies for tackling race inequality

The widely publicised 1999 'MacPherson report' following the police investigation into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, highlighted institutional racism as a major problem in British society. Three years on, this article reviews how the trade union movement has responded to calls for

21 apríl 2002
Article
Social partners
Discrimination at work
Labour market participation
Gender equality

Report examines position of immigrants with professional qualifications

In early July 2001, the Swedish Labour Market Board (Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen, AMS) published a report based on a study of the labour market for immigrant professional workers who came to Sweden between 1991 and 1997. The 6,922 individuals examined in the study were aged between 26 and 45 years, had

27 júl 2001
Article
Labour market participation
Migration and mobility
Working conditions
Employment and labour markets
Working conditions and sustainable work

Economic Policy Committee reports on state pension systems

In February 2000, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of Ministers (Ecofin) requested that the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) prepare by December 2000 a preliminary report on the impact of the ageing population on state pension systems. This report was published on 26 October 2000 and is

27 november 2000
Article
Social protection
Retirement
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets
Social policies

Gender wage gap examined

The independent research body, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a study on the "gender wage gap", entitled /How unequal? Men and women in the Irish labour market/, in October 2000. The study is based on an economy-wide survey of gender wage differentials between 1987 and

27 november 2000
Article
Gender equality
Labour market participation
Care
Working conditions
Social policies
Working conditions and sustainable work

Government agrees bill on local services and local jobs

In June 2000, the coalition government agreed on a draft bill introducing a voucher system for the provision of "local services". The new system appears simple, but supposedly covers a complex system of earlier policy measures. It includes an important package of services like domestic aid

27 júl 2000
Article
Labour and social regulation
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets

New law adopted on parental leave

Legislation approved by Italy's Chamber of Deputies in October 1999 transposes the EU Directive on parental leave into Italian law. The most innovative aspects of the new law are that it increases leave to 10 months within the first eight years of the child's life, and encourages the use of parental

27 október 1999
Article
Leave
Gender equality
Labour market participation
Working conditions
Working conditions and sustainable work

Social dialogue takes shape in the European hairdressing sector

A recent study by the Dutch consultants EIM (based on data provided by the social partner organisations) found that there are currently over 1 million individuals working in the European hairdressing sector, in over 155,000 salons. The nature of companies in the sector varies significantly, ranging

27 september 1999
Article
Labour market participation
Skills and training
Working conditions and sustainable work

The implications of the Employment Equality Act 1998

While legislation outlawing discrimination on the grounds of gender and marital status in relation to pay [1] and other aspects of employment was introduced in Ireland in the 1970s, primarily as a response to EU Directives, until recently there has been little legislative provision in relation to

27 september 1999
Article
Gender equality
Discrimination at work
Health and well-being at work
Labour market participation
Collective bargaining
Working conditions
Industrial relations
Working conditions and sustainable work
Industrial relations and social dialogue

Belgium reviews policies on older workers

Belgium and its regions, Flanders and Wallonia, have, compared with other European countries, low activity rates and employment rates - as the table below shows. Activity rates indicate the number of people presenting themselves on the labour market as available for work, expressed as a percentage

27 máj 1999
Article
Ageing workforce
Labour market participation
Retirement
Social policies
Blogs results (9)
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Marking International Women's Day - Sharing the caring: a necessary step towards gender equality

8 marec 2022
John Hurley
Blog
Teleworking
Work-life balance
Gender equality
Employment and labour markets
Labour market participation
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Good news for gender equality as we exit the COVID-19 crisis?

The pandemic has had differential impacts on women. Raised consciousness about them must be applied to advance gender equality in recovery measures. All crises have a strongly gendered impact and none more so than the current pandemic, across a range of indicators. While the virus itself seems to

28 apríl 2021
Maria Jepsen
Blog
Care
COVID-19
Employment and labour markets
Gender equality
Labour market participation
Pay and income
Teleworking
Work-life balance
Working conditions
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Choosing to challenge – the EU Gender Equality Strategy one year in

8 marec 2021
Anna Gallinat
Blog
COVID-19
Gender equality
Labour market participation
Pay and income
Work-life balance
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Could COVID-19 unravel years of progress on gender equality in employment?

​​​​​​​The decades-long trend of a narrowing gender employment gap in Europe has halted in recent years. Now the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting low-paying service sectors with a high share of social contact, including many with a majority of female workers, risking forcing them

9 december 2020
Martina Bisello
Blog
Work-life balance
Gender equality
Labour market participation
Employment and labour markets
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Youth in a time of COVID

The exponential growth of COVID-19 cases across Europe this autumn has quickly erased hopes that the virus had been contained and confirmed the surge of another wave of the pandemic. With Member States now implementing new restrictive measures for the second time since March in an attempt to control

23 október 2020
Massimiliano Mascherini
Blog
COVID-19
Promoting social cohesion and convergence
Skills and training
Youth
Subjective well-being
Labour market participation
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Tentative growth in trust shows COVID-19 has not yet torn the social fabric of Europe

As Europe faces into what appears to be a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, concern is mounting about the evolution and dramatic impact of the disease, with rising numbers of infections, hospitalisations and deaths. There is also a growing focus on the repercussions for the economy, the labour

7 október 2020
Juan Menéndez-Valdés
Blog
COVID-19
Trust
Living conditions and quality of life
Working conditions
Teleworking
Labour market participation
Working conditions and sustainable work
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The challenge of plenty: Tackling labour shortages in the EU

Unemployment in the EU is continuing to fall, with the rate approaching its 2008 low point. This is good news: the Europe 2020 target of 75% employment in the working age population is now in sight for many Member States. However, as unemployment reaches new lows, the opposite problem is emerging –

19 november 2018
Catherine Cerf
Blog
Labour market participation
Labour market policies
Migration and mobility
Working conditions
Working conditions and sustainable work
Working time
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Not finished at 50: Keeping older workers in work

Over the last decade, European labour markets have seen a surge in the number of older workers in work and a continuous decline in their unemployment rates. A lot of young and middle-aged workers lost their jobs in the Great Recession, but not so the older age group. This favourable state of affairs

15 november 2018
Irene Mandl
Blog
Working conditions and sustainable work
Sustainable work
Employment and labour markets
Labour market participation
Ageing workforce
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The gender employment gap – an issue that affects us all

In his recent State of the Union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker laid out his vision for the EU over the next 12 months. There was no shirking of responsibility; Europe faces difficult challenges, and the EU Institutions, as well as the Member States, must deliver for EU

20 október 2016
Juan Menéndez-Valdés
Blog
Gender equality
Inclusive labour markets
Inequality
Employment and labour markets
Labour market participation
Working conditions
Working conditions and sustainable work
Data results (2)

Share of main population groups among persons granted temporary protection in the EU (%)

28 marec 2024

Sectoral pattern: Number of countries ranking each sector as among the top four for employing Ukrainian refugees, selected countries

28 marec 2024

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