EMCC European Monitoring Centre on Change

The European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC) is an information resource established to promote an understanding of changes in the world of work, employment and restructuring. Its work is supported by a Network of Eurofound Correspondents across all EU Member States and Norway.

The EMCC focuses on two main topic areas.

Employment and labour markets

Employment and labour markets is one of the six main activities in Eurofound’s work programme for the 2021–2024 period. Eurofound operates as a centre of expertise for monitoring and analysing labour market developments, particularly as European labour markets are faced with major challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its research will focus on the consequences of the pandemic for work and employment and how to maintain the functioning and inclusiveness of the labour market.

Anticipating and managing the impact of change

Anticipating and managing the impact of change is one of the six main activities in Eurofound’s work programme for the 2021–2024 period. Eurofound will provide evidence on structural developments affecting the EU economy and labour markets, driven largely by digitalisation and the transition to a carbon-neutral economy, but also by the COVID-19 crisis. The research is intended to assist policymakers in anticipating and preparing European labour markets and workplaces for these changes.

COVID-19

Eurofound’s work on COVID-19 examines the far-reaching socioeconomic implications of the pandemic across Europe as they continue to impact living and working conditions. A key element of the research is the e-survey Living, working and COVID-19, launched in April 2020, with five rounds completed at different stages during 2020, 2021 and 2022. This is complemented by the inclusion of research into the ongoing effects of the pandemic in much of Eurofound’s other areas of work.

Featured - Platform work update on Eurofound platform repository

Platform work is a growing phenomenon in the EU with business models, types of platform work and policy responses constantly evolving. Even if the scale of platform work remains marginal in the EU, its existence speaks to a broader phenomenon of ever more diverse forms of employment that impact on the employment rights and working conditions of workers.

Practices which a decade ago were the hallmark of the then incipient platform economy such as algorithmic management are nowadays entering into traditional employment settings. The ‘platformisation’ of work presents numerous challenges for the world of work with standard employment moving towards more flexible, project-based work that is embedded into fragmented contractual relationships with multiple employers.

The platform work repository is the most comprehensive up-to-date European wide database that collects information about voluntary and legal initiatives that seek to address the issue of working conditions for platform workers. The database currently contains 279 entries that capture the diversity of instruments adopted in member states in response to the growing importance of platform work. 

Latest restructuring

State Food and Veterinary Service
Lithuania
20/Eyl/2022
110 jobs lost
Danish Crown
Denmark
15/Eyl/2022
350 jobs lost
Shein
Poland
15/Eyl/2022
1000 jobs created
Pimenta Foods
Poland
14/Eyl/2022
200 jobs created
Louis Vuitton
Italy
12/Eyl/2022
500 jobs created
28468 cases recorded since 2002

EMCC Publications