Living and working in Europe

Foreword

In many respects, 2023 was a good year to be working in Europe. Employment, in particular, was a bright spot. Over three-quarters of working-age Europeans are now in employment. The economy continues to generate employment, for the most part in well-paid jobs. Unemployment dropped to a record low. Gender discrepancies in the labour market are being chipped away as employment grows faster among women than men, narrowing the gender employment gap, albeit at a snail’s pace.

Such is the demand for workers that labour shortages are putting a squeeze on business performance. While this is a threat to economic competitiveness, it is also a wake-up call for governments and employers to invest more in work. For years, training and upskilling have been falling behind the accelerating pace of change as digitalisation sweeps through the world of work and the greening economy demands new skills. Governments, businesses and workers need to maintain the impetus of the 2023 European Year of Skills and to internalise a mindset of upskilling and reskilling. Without such a mindset, not only will the current shortages persist, but the green and digital transition could falter.

With more choices in the labour market, more workers are able to turn their backs on undesirable jobs. Many jobs expose workers to a raft of stressors, both physical and psychological. Evidence from Eurofound’s most recent survey on working conditions is that close to one-third of jobs are strained, the harms of which to health and well-being accumulate over time. But the evidence also suggests that reducing strain does not require so much as a workplace revolution as the creation of more supportive work environments that demonstrably value their workers.

Beyond workplace measures, the need for workers to be able to disconnect at the end of the working day is receiving increasing recognition at national and EU levels. Pressure for EU regulation is not likely to disappear despite the failure of the EU-level social partners to reach agreement. With 80% of workers in a Eurofound survey saying that they regularly receive out-of-hours contact, it is clear that boundaries need to be set.

The verdict on living in Europe in 2023 is more nuanced. The benefits of high employment are not translating into palpable improvements in the daily lives of all Europeans, in large part due to the continued rise in the cost of living. With earnings from work insufficient to keep pace with inflation, some are forced to forego the staples of a basic standard of living in these prosperous times. And something as fundamental as affordable housing for all Europeans seems to have become an unattainable dream for many.

Failure to share in the spoils of a relatively healthy economy contributes to public disillusion and disconnection from the political mainstream. Trust in government and in the EU is low, according to Eurofound findings from 2022, especially among rural populations. Add in other contentious issues such as immigration – fears of which anti-immigration activists have fuelled in the face of political disunity – and there is a real prospect that political alienation will be reflected in the ballots cast in the European Parliament elections of 2024 – at a time when solidarity in Europe was never more critical. The ongoing war in Ukraine demands a united EU front against an increasingly aggressive Russia. Failure to deliver on the goals of the European Green Deal is not an option, as the record high temperatures of summer 2023 reminded us, and only solidarity of EU leadership within itself and with the citizens of Europe will see the strategy through the complexity and opposition ahead. But the ride will not be easy.

2024 will see a new European Parliament and Commission take over responsibility for the sustainable development of the EU and the advancement of equality and social justice. Eurofound will be at the side of these institutions to deliver the evidence from its sphere of expertise to guide policy on employment, working conditions and quality of life as they evolve in a changing world.

Executive Director, Ivailo Kalfin