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Unemployment

Long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, and the increase in underemployed or involuntary part-time workers remains a concern in many Member States. Unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, increases a person's risk of social exclusion, poverty and inequality, and adds to the cost of social services and public finances. According to the European Pillar of Social Rights, unemployed people have the right to personalised, continuous and consistent support, including adequate unemployment benefits of reasonable duration.

Topic

Recent updates

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This report focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits for people of working age. Individuals with short or no employment records (mainly young people), the self-employed, those with non-standard working...

8 Deireadh Fómhair 2024
Publication
Research report
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This background paper focuses on one important aspect of social protection: unemployment benefits, both first tier (usually contributory) and lower tier (predominantly tax-based, non-contributory and means-tested). Unemployment benefits help to...

2 Feabhra 2024
Publication
Customised report
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Presentation made at the 'Informal meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers (EPSCO)' by Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director, Eurofound and Prof. dr. Paul Schoukens, Full Professor, KU Leuven. Belgian Presidency...

Presentation

Data

EU PolicyWatch database (measures to support unemployed people)

Eurofound expert(s)

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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Hans Dubois is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. His research topics include housing, over-indebtedness, healthcare, long-term care, social...

Senior research manager,
Social policies research unit
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Massimiliano Mascherini has been Head of the Social Policies unit at Eurofound since October 2019. He joined Eurofound in 2009 as a research manager, designing and coordinating...

Head of Unit,
Social policies research unit
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Tadas Leončikas is Head of the Employment unit at Eurofound since September 2022. Prior to this, he was a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit, managing the European...

Head of Unit,
Employment research unit
Publications results (19)

This report focuses on unemployment and minimum income benefits for people of working age. Individuals with short or no employment records (mainly young people), the self-employed, those with non-standard working arrangements, and the long-term unemployed are often not entitled to higher-tier, or

08 October 2024

This background paper focuses on one important aspect of social protection: unemployment benefits, both first tier (usually contributory) and lower tier (predominantly tax-based, non-contributory and means-tested). Unemployment benefits help to cushion the impact of job loss on household finances an

02 February 2024

As economies begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, labour shortages are becoming increasingly evident despite the impact of the war in Ukraine on energy and commodity prices. These include shortages exacerbated by the crisis in some sectors and professions where they had been endemic for some

28 March 2023

The fifth round of Eurofound's e-survey, fielded from 25 March to 2 May 2022, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe two years after COVID-19 was first detected on the European continent. It also explores the reality of living in a new era of uncertainty caused by t

07 July 2022

While unemployment is still a huge challenge in Europe, some countries, sectors and occupations are experiencing labour shortages. This report explores various approaches to identifying labour shortages and maps national policy debates around the issue. It documents public and social partner interve

20 July 2021

Disclaimer - Please note that this report was updated with revised data (specifically for Bulgaria) on 23 March 2021.This report sets out to assess the initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment in Europe (up to Q2 2020), including its effects across sectors and on different categories of

11 March 2021

The uneven impact of the 2008–2013 economic crisis on Member States brought upward convergence to the fore in EU political debates. The focus was on orienting social policy towards getting the EU back on track, as encapsulated in the European Pillar of Social Rights. However, the meaning of the conc

30 September 2020

This report presents the findings of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, carried out by Eurofound to capture the far-reaching implications of the pandemic for the way people live and work across Europe. The survey was fielded online.

28 September 2020

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of individuals and societies, including on the economy and labour markets, is unprecedented. The impact of the global health emergency has placed a growing number of businesses under threat, putting the jobs of more and more workers at risk and

24 June 2020

In the space of just a few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has radically transformed the lives of people around the globe. Apart from the devastating health consequences on people directly affected by the virus, the COVID-19 pandemic has had major implications for the

06 May 2020

Online resources results (67)

Flexibility in Greek labour market widespread but inadequate, report claims

The Greek labour market is quite flexible, but it does not meet companies' expectations and objectives. This is one of the main findings of a report from the Economic and Industrial Research Institute (IOVE), published in September 2000, based on a survey of companies in industry, services and the

INE issues annual economic and employment outlook

In September 2000, the Institute of Labour of Greece's GSEE and the ADEDY trade union confederations issued its second Annual economic and employment outlook. The report's basic conclusions are that: increases in wages and demand have had positive effects on production and employment; the principal

Initiatives to promote the integration of immigrants

On 16 May 2000, the National Institute for Social Research (Socialforskningsinstituttet, SFI) published its evaluation of a project entitled "Integration of immigrants on the labour market" run at the Kofoeds Skole centre in Copenhagen. Some 190 immigrants and refugees participated in the project

Government proposals for reducing unemployment

In statements made following the Greek general election in April 2000, the Minister of Labour recognised the importance of economic growth in increasing employment, contrasting with the Ministry's former position that the Greek economy was going through a period of "jobless growth". In addition, the

Proposed rehabilitative employment scheme causes controversy

In February 2000, the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health published a proposal for new measures to improve the position of long-term unemployed people who have difficulties in finding work, including a compulsory "rehabilitative employment" scheme, under threat of benefit cuts. Employers

UNICE and ETUC draw up position papers for Lisbon summit

The Portuguese Presidency of the EU organised an extraordinary European Council summit meeting [1], aimed at considering the European strategy for growth, competitiveness and employment in the light of globalisation, technological change and social exclusion, in Lisbon on 23-24 March 2000

Agreement on pensions, disagreement on unemployment

In October 1999, the debate in Spain on increasing minimum pensions ended with an agreement between the government and the trade unions over the contents of the 2000 state Budget. However, there is still disagreement on benefit coverage for unemployed people.

Report finds that wage rigidity remains high, even during high unemployment

A report entitled Survey evidence on wage rigidity and unemployment: Sweden in the 1990s [1] was presented on 29 June 1999. The study is based on two surveys, one conducted in 1991, the other in 1998, aiming to explore among managers from 157 companies in the Swedish manufacturing industry how a

No trade union support for Spain's 1999 NAP

The Spanish government's 1999 National Action Plan (NAP) for employment, in response to the EU Employment Guidelines, has been severely attacked by the trade unions. The unions criticise the content of the NAP, approved in May 1999, and the funds assigned to it, and claim that it appeared late and

Moderate optimism on economy as wage growth moderates

The revised national Budget for 1999 was passed by the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) on 18 June 1999. The annual procedure for revising the Budget enables the government to adjust its economic policy in the light of developments that have taken place since the release of the Budget in the autumn


Blogs results (9)
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​​​​​​​To date, close to six million workers in the EU have lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Many businesses have closed their doors forever or been pushed to the brink, bringing severe financial and psychological hardship to the individuals and families affected. However, the toll of the pandemic c

9 Feabhra 2021
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The employment fallout of COVID-19 has been a story of two types of service work. Office-based knowledge workers have largely kept their jobs and incomes while participating in the huge and apparently successful ad hoc social experiment in working from home. Client-facing service workers have borne

2 Feabhra 2021
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​​​​​​​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 an

3 Meitheamh 2020
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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?

18 Bealtaine 2020
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The impact of COVID-19 continues to create chaos in people’s lives across Europe and the world. The economy is heading towards another major dip, and a sense of general insecurity pervades. The daunting challenges confronting health services and projections on the long-term impact of the crisis domi

12 Bealtaine 2020
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Europe has weathered a number of storms in recent years, yet despite the Great Recession, the migration crisis and the challenges posed by Brexit, the EU continues on a stable path to economic recovery, closer cooperation and cohesion. However, the legacy of the crisis lives on in the number of youn

3 Bealtaine 2018
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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 substanti

17 Aibreán 2018
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In this blog piece, originally published in Social Europe, Eurofound Research Manager Anna Ludwinek looks at the substantial section of the population that is not working and does not figure in unemployment statistics, but retains significant employment potential.

20 Nollaig 2017
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A key priority for EU policy makers is to combat high levels of youth unemployment. Supporting young people to start a new business is increasingly regarded as a way to achieve this goal. And yet the understanding of what drives the success and failure of youth entrepreneurship policies remains inco

18 Aibreán 2016

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