Mascherini, Massimiliano

​​​​​​​While women appear to be more resilient than men to COVID-19 in terms of health outcomes, that is not the case when it comes to the economic and social fallout. Measures taken by governments to control the spread of the virus are exacerbating gender divides in unemployment, domestic labour and financial security, all to the disadvantage of women. Meanwhile, work–life conflict is escalating as people work from home, with mothers of small children often bearing the brunt of the impact.

While we now know that the idea that ‘COVID-19 only affects older people’ is fake news, the first weeks of the pandemic have shown that young people are in general more resilient than older people to the disease. But are they also more resilient to its social and economic impacts?

This compendium of articles presents a snapshot of some of Eurofound’s most recent research, and highlights important 21st-century trends in quality of life and working conditions throughout the EU. It is organised around the six priority areas set out by the new European Commission for a transition to a fair, climate-neutral and digital Europe.

The European Pillar of Social Rights is designed to act as a compass for a renewed process of upward convergence among Member States towards better working and living conditions. It is accompanied by a Social Scoreboard to monitor the progr...

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.