Archive:Labour market statistics introduced
- Latest update of text: September 2012
Labour market statistics are at the juxtaposition of economic and social domains. Market outcomes within the labour market directly affect not only the economy, but directly the personal lives of virtually all Europeans. From an economic viewpoint, these statistics address labour as an input for economic growth, providing measures in relation to hours worked, labour productivity, vacant posts, wage levels, labour costs, and so on. However, labour market statistics also shed light on social and socio-economic matters, such as the jobless (unemployed persons), earnings and their structural components, social inequalities (for example, the gender pay gap), working patterns and social integration. As such, Eurostat statistics cover both the supply and the demand side of the labour market, offering data for short-term and structural analyses, as well as in monetary and non-monetary terms.
In addition, the portfolio of labour market statistics developed by Eurostat also includes measures for labour market policy interventions. These are public interventions in the labour market targeted at the unemployed, persons who are employed but at risk of involuntary job loss and inactive persons.
The financial and economic crisis reversed many of the developments witnessed within European labour markets since 2000: unemployment has surged, there has been a tendency for shorter working hours (less overtime and fewer people in employment) and real incomes have been falling in some areas. With the aim of stimulating economic recovery, the European Commission has set up the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Two of its flagship initiatives concern labour market issues, namely 'An agenda for new skills and jobs' and 'Youth on the move'. These promote a range of actions aimed at education and training institutions, measures for the creation of a (work) environment conducive to higher activity rates and higher labour productivity, and initiatives aimed at facilitating the entry of young people into the labour market. The Europe 2020 strategy includes five headline targets for measuring progress, one of these being specific to the labour market: namely, to ensure that by 2020, three quarters (75 %) of 20 to 64 year-olds in the EU-27 are employed. In order to achieve this target the European Commission has identified a range of actions, namely, to:
- reinforce the notion of ‘flexicurity’ in national labour markets;
- develop a new concept relating to the ‘quality of work’;
- explore the impact of employment policies on wages and taxation;
- develop guiding principles towards policies that support job creation;
- promote measures for youth employment and self-employment;
- and explore the impact of climate change on labour markets.
The European Commission has also launched an initiative to provide an overview of developments in labour markets, through the collection of information on job vacancies, job seekers, hiring and skills requirements. It is hoped that this information can be used as an early-warning tool by policymakers to identify bottlenecks and mismatches within the labour market.
Otherwise, nationally, governments use a range of labour market interventions to promote the efficient functioning of markets and the correction of disequilibria, by selectively targeting certain groups in society. Public employment services are one example of such an intervention, seeking to match job seekers with vacant posts. Governments may also seek to use a range of alternative measures to provide (temporary) support to disadvantaged groups, such as: training initiatives, job rotation and job sharing schemes, employment incentives, supported employment and rehabilitation, direct job creation, or start-up incentives.