The Employment and Social Developments in Europe
(ESDE) review is an annual review of the latest employment and social
trends, reflecting on upcoming challenges and possible policy responses.
This year's review reveals further positive employment and social
developments in the EU. However, despite recent improvements, huge
disparities still exist between Member States, in terms of economic
growth, employment and other key social and labour market indicators.
Many of these disparities are linked to an underutilisation of human
capital on several fronts.
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen, commented: "We
need to ensure that there are more and better opportunities for people
in the EU, especially those furthest away from the labour market. We
must also invest in enhancing people's skills, so that all women and men
in the EU can realise their full potential. We need to invest in people
to achieve growth and jobs. We need to ensure that our labour law and
social protection systems are fit-for-purpose in the 21st century, and
we need to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. The European Pillar
of Social Rights will play an important role in this context."
The
2015 ESDE report looks at ways of tackling these disparities, focusing
in particular on job creation, labour market efficiency, social
protection modernisation and investment in people.
Promoting job creation...
The
ESDE 2015 review highlights the potential of self-employment and
entrepreneurship to create more jobs. However, the data suggests that
some groups, including young people, old people, women, and ethnic
minorities, may face stronger barriers to start their own businesses. In
addition, this year's report indicates that a majority of people do not
feel that they possess the necessary skills or knowledge to start a
business. The ESDE review reveals that targeted policies can help. These
can include easier access to financing or fiscal incentives,
entrepreneurship education or access to child and elderly care.
The
ESDE review also reports an increase in the variety of employment
contracts, which allow for flexible working arrangements and therefore
increased labour market participation, but can also lead to labour
market segmentation. While some new contracts offer a potential win-win
situation, others bring about work uncertainty. Flexibility is
important, but security is also needed – an issue that will also be
addressed in the context of developing the European Pillar of Social
Rights.
Improving labour market efficiency
The
2015 ESDE review reveals that the EU can make better use of its human
resources through mobility. Although the number of mobile workers has
increased over the past two decades, their share in the total work force
remains limited: Only 4% of the EU's population aged 15 to 64 live in a
Member State other than the one they were born in. Yet, mobile EU
workers tend to have better employment prospects overall than the native
population. In addition, their flows have reduced unemployment in some
Member States hit hardest by the crisis and helped address staff
shortages in receiving countries. The ESDE review therefore clearly
underlines the economic potential of mobility.
The review
also looks at long-term unemployment, which affects about 11.4 million
people in the EU. Fighting long-term unemployment is crucial when
striving to improve labour market efficiency, as the long-term
unemployed have about half the chance of finding employment compared to
the short-term unemployed. The analysis in the ESDE review shows that
being registered with national public employment services and participating in training, significantly increases the chances of moving to a sustainable job. The Recommendation on long-term unemployment adopted by the Council on 7 December 2015 is in line with these findings.
Finally,
social dialogue will be crucial in promoting a sustainable and
inclusive economic recovery. Social partners have been involved in the
design and implementation of several major reforms and policies. For
social dialogue to play this role effectively, the capacity of social
partners needs to be strengthened, particularly in Member States where
social dialogue is weak or has been weakened due to the economic
crisis.
Investing in people
Although
the level of unemployment in the EU remains high, employers continue to
encounter difficulties in filling certain vacancies. In addition to
genuine mismatches in skills, the ability to fill vacancies is also
limited by an inability to offer attractive pay or working conditions,
good training or career opportunities. The ESDE 2015 review finds that
there is a significant share of non-EU workers in occupations below
their qualification level. The New Skills Agenda initiative that the
Commission is preparing for this year will seek to address these
challenges. In addition, employment levels of women with children and
older workers are still significantly low. Promoting greater labour
market participation of these groups will be crucial in the context of
an ageing population.
Background: The ESDE review
The
ESDE review reports on the latest employment and social trends, and
reflects on upcoming challenges and possible policy responses. Based on
the latest data and literature available, the review underpins the
Commission's initiatives in the employment and social policy field,
feeding into the European Semester, the Mobility Package, the Skills Package and the development of the European Pillar of Social Rights.