Information on data
Skills supply, demand, and utilisation can be measured by 3 different approaches:
- indirect measures, referring to skills which people have presumably acquired through formal education
- direct measures, referring to direct assessments of people’s skills, for example through test scores or by looking at job vacancies or newly employed people
- self-reported skill levels, skills utilisation, and skill demand, referring to people’s self-assessment of their own skills, their reported use of skills at work, and the skills that employers indicate as needed.
Based on these 3 approaches, a so-called ‘skills mismatch’ can be identified. The skills mismatch is measuring the gap between demand and supply of skills as well as working conditions of workers, jobs or vacancies.
The indicators presented in this section come from the following different data sources:
The adult education survey (AES) collects data on self-reported language skills, which is used for the area on skills supply, and on adult participation in education and training in the last 12 months prior to the survey.
The AES covers formal, non-formal, and informal learning activities. It also provides information on training activities paid for by the employer, which is used for the area on skills development.
Up to 2016, the survey was carried out every 5 years, from 2016 onwards it takes place every 6 years.
Results of the 2022 AES are expected by the end of 2023.
The continuing vocational training survey (CVTS) collects information on enterprises' investment in the continuing vocational training of their staff. This is used for the area on skills development and demand.
The indicators cover education and training activities financed completely, or at least partly, by the enterprise, including vocational training during working hours.
The CVTS takes place every 5 years.
The most recent CVTS was carried out for the reference year 2020.
The joint UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection provides annual data on formal education. This includes data on tertiary graduates by:
- education level
- completion
- programme orientation
- field of education (used for skills supply).
In addition, data on enrolments and language learning are available, which are used for the area of skills development.
Data on information and communication technologies (ICT) are available from 2 different annual surveys:
- Survey on households and persons: This survey on ICT usage in households and by persons collects, amongst others, data on people's digital skills. These are used for the area of skills supply. Information is provided on self-reported levels of digital skills and frequency of computer use.
- Survey on enterprises: The survey on ICT usage and e-Commerce in enterprises is used to provide insights for the area on skills demand. Amongst others, it includes indicators on enterprises that recruit or tried to recruit ICT specialists. Further statistics from this survey provide information on enterprises that provided trainings to their personnel to develop ICT skills, which is used for the area on skills development.
Job vacancy statistics provide information on unmet labour demand. The statistics on the number of vacant jobs are used for the area on skills demand.
The EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) is the main data source for Eurostat’s skills-related statistics. The data cover:
- skills supply, for example data on the population by educational attainment or by formal qualifications, including young people, as well as early leavers from education
- skills demand, for example indicators on employment by educational attainment, occupation, and economic sector.
The EU-LFS provides several indicators on the participation in formal and non-formal education and training in the last 4 weeks before the reference week in which the survey took place. This information is used for the area on skills development.
The LFS modules provide statistics on a particular topic concerning the labour market by adding each year a set of variables to supplement the core EU-LFS.
The following modules provide information on skills-related statistics:
- 2022 module on job skills provides information on:
- the utilisation of skills at work
- the degree of autonomy when carrying out work-related tasks
- the level of repetitiveness of these tasks.
- module on the labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants, which last took place in 2021, provides information on:
- the level of language proficiency of foreign-born people in the language of their current host country
- the level of skills in this language before the migration
- the skill equivalence between current job and the job before migrating, i.e. a comparison between the skill levels required for the current job and the job before migrating.
- module on young people on the labour market, which is planned to be conducted in 2024, will collect information on the self-perceived mismatch between someone’s job requirements and their education and skills.
The data collection on research and development (R&D) provides information on R&D personnel and researchers by sector of performance and educational attainment. Data are available annually. These are used for the area on skills demand.
Some skills related indicators are obtained from other sources. These are:
- data on human resources in science and technology (HRST): These come from the EU-LFS for data on stocks and job-to-job-mobility, and from the joint UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection for data on education inflows. The indicators are used for both skills supply and skills demand.
- statistics on high-tech industry and knowledge intensive services: These come from the community innovation survey (CIS), external trade statistics, EU-LFS, patent statistics, R&D, and structural business statistics.