Mascherini, Massimiliano

Upward convergence is a process whereby the performance of EU Member States in a given domain or range of domains is seen to improve while gaps between Member States reduce. Achieving upward convergence is of crucial importance to the EU, as the increase of disparities among Member States threatens the cohesion of the Union by counteracting citizens’ expectations that EU membership will improve working and living conditions.

In the wake of an economic crisis that had a very uneven impact on social outcomes across EU Member States, EU leaders and policymakers have come to acknowledge that to make social Europe a reality, social convergence must be given an equal...

In the wake of the economic crisis, European leaders and policymakers have recognised that economic and social convergence must go hand in hand if the goals of economic and monetary union are to be achieved. This policy brief provides an updated picture of convergence in employment outcomes across the EU Member States and regions. Five key labour market indicators are examined.

Socioeconomic convergence is at the root of the European project, and the need to address social convergence alongside economic convergence has risen to the top of the European policy agenda in recent years. This policy brief provides an updated picture of convergence in selected socioeconomic indicators across the EU Member States and regions.

In this blog, originally posted in Social Europe, Massimiliano Mascherini looks at the enduring issue of long-term unemployment among young people. Despite considerable improvement in the labour market participation of youth in recent years, the legacy of the crisis is still visible in the substantial increase in the cohort of long-term unemployed young people.

Monitoring Convergence in the European Union. Joint Meeting of the Social Protection Committee Indicators Sub-Group and the EMCO Indicators Group, 13 March 2018, Brussels, Belgium. Presentation by Massimiliano Mascherini, Senior Research Manager, Eurofound.

One of the common values that unites the European Union is that of equal opportunities: all citizens should have the same possibility to improve their lives and participate in the labour market regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Ensuring equal opportunities in finding work also represents a key goal for Europe in facing the challenges posed by demographic change and achieving inclusive and sustainable growth.

Women’s labour market participation in the European Union has increased over recent decades, passing 70% in 2014. In that year, women comprised almost 46% of the active EU labour market population.

The concept of NEET (young people not in employment, education or training) has, since 2010, been widely used as a tool to inform youth-oriented policies in the 28 Member States of the European Union. While it has been a valuable addition to more traditional indicators used to understand the economic and social vulnerability of young people and their labour market participation, it has often been criticised because of the heterogeneity of the population it captures. This report explores the diversity of NEETs and suggests seven subgroups into which the NEET population can be disaggregated using data routinely collected for the EU Labour Force Survey.

Youth unemployment policy has tended to focus on two groups: young people with low educational attainment and those with higher education who have failed to find work. However, there is a large group of middle attainers who tend to be overl...