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  New tasks in old jobs
  Drivers of change and implications for job quality

  This overview report summarises the findings of 20 case studies looking at recent changes in the task content of five manufacturing occupations (car assemblers, meat processing workers, hand-packers, chemical products plant and machine operators and inspection engineers) as a result of factors s...

  This overview report summarises the findings of 20 case studies looking at recent changes in the task content of five manufacturing occupations (car assemblers, meat processing workers, hand-packers, chemical products plant and machine operators and inspection engineers) as a result of factors such as digital transformations, globalisation and offshoring, increasing demand for high quality standards and sustainability. It also discusses some implications in terms of job quality and working life. The study reveals that the importance of physical tasks in manufacturing is generally declining due to automation; that more intensive use of digitally controlled equipment, together with increasing importance of quality standards, involve instead a growing amount of intellectual tasks for manual industrial workers; and that the amount of routine task content is still high in the four manual occupations studied. Overall, the report highlights how qualitative contextual information can complement existing quantitative data, offering a richer understanding of changes in the content and nature of jobs.

  • Published: 2018-09-13
  • Corporate Author(s): Eurofound (EU body or agency)
  • Subject: case study, EU Member State, industrial manufacturing, labour force, labour market, non-working population, professional qualifications, research report, unemployment
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  The 2018 ageing report
  Underlying assumptions and projection methodologies

  The sustainability of public finances in the EU can be better safeguarded if its analysis banks on reliable and comparable information on possible challenges to fiscal sustainability, including the expected strains caused by the demographic changes ahead. For this reason, the ECOFIN Council gave...

  The sustainability of public finances in the EU can be better safeguarded if its analysis banks on reliable and comparable information on possible challenges to fiscal sustainability, including the expected strains caused by the demographic changes ahead. For this reason, the ECOFIN Council gave a mandate to the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) to produce a new set of long-term budgetary projections by 2018, on the basis of new population projections to be provided by Eurostat. The EPC and the Commission services (Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs - DG ECFIN) agreed on a work programme with broad arrangements to organise the budgetary projections and reach an agreement on its assumptions and methodologies to discharge this mandate (see the overview of the projection exercise for details). This report provides a description of the underlying macroeconomic assumptions and methodologies of the age-related expenditure projections for all Member States. On the basis of these assumptions and methodologies, age-related expenditures covering pensions, health care, long-term care, education and also unemployment benefits (for the sake of completeness) will be calculated and presented in the sixth Ageing Report to the ECOFIN Council in spring 2018. The long-term projections show where (in which countries), when, and to what extent ageing pressures will accelerate as the baby-boom generation retires and as the EU population continues to extend its life span in the future. Hence, the projections are helpful in highlighting the immediate and future policy challenges for governments posed by demographic trends. The report provides a very rich set of information at the individual country level, compiled in a comparable manner. Comparable and reliable underlying projections are crucial since they cover a long time-span (until 2070). The projections feed into a variety of policy debates and processes at EU level, including the overarching Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In particular, they are used in the context of the European Semester so as to identify policy challenges, including in setting the mediumterm budgetary objectives (MTOs), in the annual assessment of the sustainability of public finances carried out as part of the Stability and Growth Pact, and additionally in the analysis on the impact of ageing populations on the labour market and potential economic growth.

  • Published: 2018-06-05
  • Corporate Author(s): Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (European Commission)
  • Subject: economic forecasting, EU expenditure, EU Member State, health expenditure, labour force, long-term forecast, macroeconomics, non-working population, pension scheme, population ageing, population forecast, public finance, report, unemployment
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  Reactivate
  Employment opportunities for economically inactive people

  Employment policies tend to focus on unemployed people, but evidence indicates that many people who are economically inactive also have labour market potential. This report examines groups within the inactive population that find it difficult to enter or re-enter the labour market and explores t...

  Employment policies tend to focus on unemployed people, but evidence indicates that many people who are economically inactive also have labour market potential. This report examines groups within the inactive population that find it difficult to enter or re-enter the labour market and explores the reasons why. It maps the characteristics and living conditions of these groups, discusses their willingness to work and examines the barriers that prevent them from doing so. The report also looks at strategies being implemented by Member States to promote the inclusion of those outside the labour market. It highlights that many inactive people would like to work in some capacity, particularly students and homemakers. Stressing the importance of focusing on the specific needs of the inactive population in designing and implementing effective strategies for their labour market integration, the report argues that Member States should fully implement the 2008 European Commission Recommendation on the active inclusion of people excluded from the labour market.

  • Published: 2017-11-09
  • Corporate Author(s): Eurofound (EU body or agency)
  • Subject: employment policy, incapacity for work, labour market, non-working population, persons in work, population of working age, reintegration into working life, research report, working conditions
• Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions — Coordination of Social Security Systems

  • Published: 2017-07-12
  • Corporate Author(s): Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (European Committee of the Regions) ; European Committee of the Regions
  • Subject: care allowance, EU Member State, family benefit, non-working population, social security legislation, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance
• Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004’Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland.. (COM(2016) 815 final — 2016/0397 (COD))

  • Published: 2017-07-05
  • Corporate Author(s): European Economic and Social Committee
  • Subject: care allowance, equal treatment, expatriate worker, frontier worker, job application, labour mobility, non-working population, parental allowance, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance
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  Estimating labour market slack in the European Union
  

  Labour market slack is the shortfall between the volume of work desired by workers and the actual volume of work available. The most important indicator of labour slack is the unemployment rate, but an exclusive focus on this fails to take account of the four-fifths of the jobless population who...

  Labour market slack is the shortfall between the volume of work desired by workers and the actual volume of work available. The most important indicator of labour slack is the unemployment rate, but an exclusive focus on this fails to take account of the four-fifths of the jobless population who are inactive rather than unemployed. Many people in this group have some form of labour market attachment – they would like to work, are seeking work or are available to work. In addition, many part-time workers would like to work longer hours. The aim of this report is to develop a more nuanced estimate of labour slack using EU Labour Force Survey data, which allows involuntary parttimers and inactive people with some labour market attachment to be identified and quantified. The authors calculate that there were around 50 million people in the broad category of labour slack in 2015 and that labour slack has been slower to fall in response to the recovery than unemployment.

  • Published: 2017-06-21
  • Corporate Author(s): Eurofound (EU body or agency)
  • Subject: EU Member State, labour force, labour market, non-working population, part-time employment, research report, short-time working, unemployment
• COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT Accompanying the document Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland)

  • Published: 2016-12-13
  • Corporate Author(s): Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission) ; European Commission
  • Subject: care allowance, EU Member State, family benefit, non-working population, social security legislation, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance
• COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT Initiative to partially revise Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the coordination of social security systems and its implementing Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 Accompanying the document Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland)

  • Published: 2016-12-16
  • Corporate Author(s): Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission) ; European Commission
  • Subject: care allowance, EU Member State, family benefit, non-working population, social security legislation, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance
• Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland)

  • Published: 2016-12-13
  • Corporate Author(s): Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission) ; European Commission
  • Subject: care allowance, EU Member State, family benefit, non-working population, social security legislation, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance
• Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 (Text with relevance for the EEA and Switzerland)

  • Published: 2016-12-13
  • Corporate Author(s): Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission) ; European Commission
  • Subject: care allowance, EU Member State, family benefit, non-working population, social security legislation, social-security harmonisation, unemployment insurance