Archive:Labour market statistics introduced
YEARBOOK 2013 - 25.09.2012
This article is ready to be reviewed for its inclusion in the 2013 edition of the Eurostat Yearbook.
Please see the DISCUSSION page of this article for more details.
- Latest update of text: September 2012
Labour market statistics measure the involvement of individuals, households and businesses in the labour market, where the former mainly offer their labour in return for remuneration, while the latter act as employers. Market outcomes within the labour market – for example employment, unemployment, vacant posts, wage levels, labour costs – heavily affect not only the economy, but directly the personal lives of virtually all Europeans.
Labour market statistics are at the heart of many European Union (EU) policies following the inclusion of an employment chapter into the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997. Eurostat statistics cover both the supply and the demand side of the labour market, as well as labour market policy interventions. Data is collected for both short-term and structural aspects, as well as in monetary and non-monetary terms.
The financial and economic crisis reversed many of the changes within European labour markets since 2000, reflected through higher unemployment rates, shorter working hours and falling income. The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth put forward by the European Commission is the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade. 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.
To reflect this new focus of labour market policy, the Integrated Guidelines.pdf integrated economic and employment guidelines were revised as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. The Europe 2020 strategy includes five headline targets for measuring progress towards 2020 and one of these is specific to the labour market: to ensure that, by 2020, 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 favouring 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.