European Union Labour Research Articles

Unpaid overtime and non-standard employment among young people in Europe: do national context and institutions matter?

ABSTRACT This article presents a multilevel analysis of unpaid overtime among young people (aged 15–34) across EU-28 member states. It finds that non-standard employment and the specific characteristics and institutions of Europe’s labour markets are related to unpaid overtime. Use has been made of the European Union Labour Force Survey database for 2019. The econometric analysis shows that a national level and a greater scope of collective bargaining agreements, a higher rate of involuntary part-time employment and lower levels of unemployment expenditure increase the probability of unpaid overtime among young people. Furthermore, our results reveal that how flexibility is boosted in European countries drives unpaid overtime. Temporary employment, working from home and a higher number of hours worked are positively related to unpaid overtime, while part-time employment and temporary work agencies are negatively related. Finally, the older and higher educated young workers have a greater propensity towards unpaid overtime, while there is a negative effect of shift work and no significant one in terms of gender and the degree of protection against dismissal. Policy implications for the implementation of flexibility policies and working time regulations are also discussed.

Educational Expansion as a Driver of Longer Working Lives?

This study investigates the contribution of educational expansion to changes in labour force participation among Europeans aged 55-74 between 2000 and 2019, while accounting for changes in educational inequalities in labour market activity. We use data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) for 26 countries and Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methods to analyse the extent to which changes in the education structure may account for rises in labour force participation rates among older workers in these countries, and the degree to which returns to education have changed. Overall, we found that educational expansion is positively associated with increases in labour force participation, albeit with substantial cross-country variation in the scale of this association. A driving factor was the decrease in the share of the population with low education levels, followed by an increase in the share of those with high education levels. While activity rates rose in most countries and among all levels of education, the largest increases were observed among people with a medium level of education. Activity rates of low-educated older workers, especially women, grew at a substantially lower pace in some countries, exacerbating educational inequalities in labour force participation at older ages. The study suggests that educational expansion has been a driver of longer working lives in Europe. However, it also indicates that changes in health, working conditions and age norms at the microlevel, as well as pension and labour market reforms at the macrolevel, can be assumed to have played a dominant role in countries where increases in labour force participation were the most significant.

Measuring labor market transitions with time series of cross sections

We consider the problem of measuring transition probabilities when panel data is not available and retrospective data is measured with error. We establish point-identification conditions of transition probabilities and propose a method to estimate them using time series of cross sections. We illustrate the application of our results using the European Union Labor Force Survey.

Investigation into Digital Skills in the European Union Labor Market: A Case Study of the Banking Sector

The digitization of the economy has emerged as a global trend, particularly pronounced in the past decade and significantly accelerated in the last five years. Recognizing the transformative impact of digitization on the structure of the labor market, the European Union has identified digital skills as crucial elements affecting employment and income distribution. With digital technologies permeating various sectors of the European economy over the past decade, over 40% of EU workers have encountered changes or replacements in the technologies they utilize at work. This paper delves into the political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors influencing the development of digital skills within the European Union, employing a PEST analysis framework, with a specific focus on the banking sector.

European family business owners: what factors affect their job satisfaction?

PurposeThis research aims to better understand the factors and determinants that shape the job satisfaction of European family business owners.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a unique sample of 11,362 European family business owners surveyed within the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS) framework, and the main findings were obtained by estimating ordered logistic regression models.FindingsThe authors show that only 26.8% of European family business owners are women, which underlines the gender imbalance in family business ownership, and the authors' results also report that their job satisfaction is significantly lower compared to males. The authors also find the highest job satisfaction amongst family business owners with master-level degrees and point out several interesting statistically significant differences across the industry focus of the family business.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the body of knowledge on the job satisfaction of family business owners by conducting a large-scale study based on a statistically representative sample of European respondents.

Gender inequality in leadership positions

The fact that women are still less likely than men to hold leadership positions is evident across Europe, with gender differences varying among countries. This paper examines how part-time employment contributes to the gender gap in leadership positions between women and men working in highly skilled occupations. In doing so, we pay particular attention to whether and possibly how the correlation between part-time work and a leadership position is mediated by gender, as employment levels and gender have often been confounded in empirical studies in the past. The analyses are based on European Union Labour Force Survey data and cover seven European countries. Our results confirm that part-time work is related to the gender gap in leadership positions in all countries studied, with a negative correlation between reduced working hours and holding a supervisory position, and with women being much more likely than men to work part-time. Our findings also suggest that part-time penalties, i.e. the negative association between reduced working hours and having supervisory responsibilities, are gender-specific, but in the sense that they are more pronounced for male workers. Our findings further imply that the extent of part-time penalties is not related to the prevailing part-time culture in a country.

THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST OF WORKERS IN EUROPEAN UNION LAW

The notion of the ‘collective interest of workers’, i.e. the interest of a group of workers, cannot be found in European Union labour law. Although collective representation and collective bargaining are important pillars of the European social model, this absence of the notion can be explained by the (ultra)liberal market philosophy of the European project, which favours an individualistic approach to labour relations and an irenic conception of collective labour relations. Nevertheless, the notion of ‘collective interest’ can be found in other contexts, referring to the interests of the members of an entity or the users of a service. This idea infuses the EU collective labour law. Actors defending the interests of a group of workers are recognised as legitimate actors, albeit partial and fluctuating. It appears that, without being named, the collective interest of workers was first established in the functioning of the ECSC and the EEC, which became the EC and then the EU. The role of trade unions was institutionalised: they were involved in the development of European social policy. It was only at a later stage that Community law, and then EU law, took up the interests of workers as a group within the company, in the context of the harmonisation of legislations on the prerogatives of their representatives.

Quasi (-social) citizenship, the common travel area, and the fragmented protection of employment rights in the United Kingdom after Brexit

Irish citizens living in the United Kingdom (UK) enjoy a privileged immigration status, which in turn facilitates access to a number of economic and social rights, perhaps most importantly a right to—and thereby rights in—work. European Union (EU) law played an important role in facilitating the latter, but with freedom of movement and the right to work of Irish citizens now dependent on the Common Travel Area (CTA) and associated legislative protections. This article argues that the CTA constitutes a workers’ rights ‘intervention’, which necessitates a clearer articulation of how this instrument fits within the wider context of post-Brexit UK employment law, including the rights deriving from the withdrawal arrangements governing the UK's departure from the EU. There are a number of asymmetries in the CTA that undermine its value as an employment rights conduit. Brexit, it is argued, has led to further fragmentation of the category of ‘Irish citizen’ in the UK, despite the purported recent recognition of such citizens as a distinct class within UK immigration law. More significantly, the CTA lacks normative purpose, and is a rather weak employment law instrument, in that it represents no more than a facilitation of national legislative intervention to ensure (roughly) equivalent treatment between British and Irish citizens in matters of employment (among other economic and social rights). The current CTA arrangements are thereby devoid of any underpinning (social) objectives or values and lack explicit recognition of their role as a facilitator of access to fundamental economic and social rights. Non-political, and rights-based conceptions of social citizenship are suggested as potential normative groundings for the CTA and derived (employment) rights in the absence of the protective framework offered by EU free movement and labour law.

Immigration and health outcomes: A study on native health perception and limitations in Europe

This study examines the impact of immigration on the self-perceived health of natives in 16 European countries from 2006 to 2018. Utilizing data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) and the European Union Labor Force Survey (EU-LFS), we focus on two health outcomes: natives’ self-perceived health and health-related limitations in daily activities. Contrary to concerns, our findings indicate a positive influence of immigration on natives’ health perception and a reduction in health-related limitations. Noteworthy variations by gender and age emerge, with more pronounced benefits in countries with lower human capital. These results underscore the potential health advantages of immigration, emphasizing the necessity for nuanced immigration policies that consider societal impact and call for a comprehensive evaluation of immigration’s effects.

On working from home in European countries

PurposeThe authors analyzed the evolution of working from home (WFH) within industries in 12 European countries in the period 2008–2017 and studied its relationship with information and communication technologies (ICT).Design/methodology/approachThe authors used data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) to document the trends and levels of WFH within industries in 12 European countries. The authors further used the EU-KLEMS database and a difference-in-difference approach to study whether the fall in prices of ICT is associated with a higher share of employees who work from home in industries that depend more on ICT relative to industries that depend less.FindingsThe authors show that WFH has increased almost everywhere and that there is significant heterogeneity across industries. The authors provide evidence that the fall in prices of ICT is associated with a higher share of employees who work from home in industries that depend more on ICT relative to industries that depend less. This result also holds within age, gender and occupation groups. While the authors find no significant differences among gender and occupation groups, the positive association between the fall in ICT prices and WFH increases with age.Originality/valueThis paper has two main contributions: First, it reports that WFH has increased in European countries in the period 2008–2017. Second, it provides new explorations about the relationship between ICT and WFH by using the price variation of ICT.

Feminization, Ageing, and Occupational Change in Europe in the Last 25 Years

AbstractThis paper presents new evidence on the interaction between demographic and occupational change in Europe over the last 25 years. We use data from the European Union Labour Force Survey covering six European countries. The analysis is based on a cross‐sectional comparison between the population and employment distributions in 1995 and 2019. This strategy allows us to study the changing demographic dynamics, which have brought a more feminized, aged, and educated working population, in a context of structural employment change, where higher job polarization or occupational upgrading are the main patterns. The results indicate that the increasing female participation has been associated with a strong general process of occupational upgrading that particularly benefited women. Still, the occupational profile of women is polarized relative to men. Although the process of educational upgrading was also stronger for women and overall they improved their occupational profile more than that of men, we find declining occupational returns to higher education for female workers in two countries. Finally, while European labor markets could accommodate the large increase in older workers, their occupational profile suffered some downgrading.

The later, the better? The ethnic penalty on labor market achievement by migrant generation: evidence from Italy

The socio-economic inclusion of the children of immigrants in the host labor markets is still problematic, and connoted by a general penalization if compared with their native counterpart. Anyway, this issue has been studied only in old migration countries, while it remains largely unexplored in the new receiving ones. From this perspective, Italy represents a very interesting and uncharted case study, where first-generation migrants have already emerged as a particularly disadvantaged group. This work aims at filling this gap, by exploiting the two Eurostat "ad hoc modules" (2008; 2014) European Union Labour Force Survey. By means of multivariate statistical techniques, it will be estimated the gap in employment and socio-economic status among natives and migrants, distinguished according to their generation, and how this gap varies within the second-generation individuals with different parental area of origin.

Comparing Occupational Health and Safety Systems in Kurdistan Region and Turkey: Problems, Concerns and Solutions Related to the Systems

In this study, we aim to compare the current Occupational Health and Safety(OHS) Laws and systems in Kurdistan Region and Turkey major business partners and having a huge Kurdish population and similar culture besides being close to each other. Turkey has made great improvements in the OHS in last 10 years to comply with European Union labor law. The problems and benefits of the law in the last 10 years in Turkey will be discussed and compared with Kurdistan Region. Kurdistan Region needs to develop a well-organized OHS system through considering Turkey OHS journey to improve the working life.

Underemployment and overemployment in Central Europe

This research examines the working hours preferences of the employees in selected Central European countries, specifically in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Using the country-representative data from the 2017 edition of the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS), the study investigates the discrepancies between respondents' desired working hours and those usually worked per week. A comparative econometric analysis of those individuals who work more than they wish (overemployed) and those who work less than they desire (underemployed) is conducted. Several interesting observations came out of the performed analysis. We document some significant variables shaping these two situations occurring in the Central European labour markets. The obtained findings document the heterogeneity concerning gender, education, migration background, experience and occupation.

Sustainability of EU Labour Markets During the Coronavirus Crisis

The world’s labour markets were significantly affected by the coronavirus spread and lockdowns and deaths caused by it. Policy-makers tried to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market by imposing different measures and aid packages. Having in mind all activities for combating the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the labour market in 2020 and 2021, the question arose how resilient are labour markets to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the year before the pandemic? Therefore, this study attempts to answer this question by creating a composite index of ten labour market indicators using the MOORA ranking method. The research sample is made up of 27 European Union (EU) countries. In the first step, countries’ composite indexes were compared on a year-to-year basis (2019-2020, 2019-2021 and 2020-2021) and no significant discrepancies were observed. In the second step, differences in geographical clusters of countries were captured while comparing their composite indexes for 2020 and 2021. The study results indicate that aid packages restricted the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the EU labour markets and strengthened their sustainability. The downturn in EU labour market indicators was retained thus making divergence between geographical clusters inherited from the previous periods. The research results indicate the importance of joint EU policies in crisis periods for encouraging the sustainability of the EU labour markets and the need to make a balance among EU labour markets under normal conditions.

Types of Responses of the EU Labour Markets in the Early Covid-Pandemic Period

The dual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (simultaneous demand and supply shocks) was manifested by values of the economically important indicators, including measures applied to the labour market. The magnitude and scope of the response on the European Union labour markets were significantly country-specific parameters. The purpose of this article is to identify the types of responses of the EU labour markets in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the agglomeration clustering methods, namely the Ward approach, has been applied to create groups of the studied labour markets. The application of this method led to the identification of 4 clusters of economies, characterized by different types of response in terms of the direction and intensity of changes on the labour market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of immigration and integration policies on immigrant-native labour market hierarchies

ABSTRACT Across European Union (EU) labour markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labour market outcomes, signifying widespread labour market hierarchies. Despite the considerable investment in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or alleviate labour market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are linked to labour market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings suggest that designing less restrictive immigration and integration policies could aid in reducing existing labour market disadvantages for immigrants, enabling them to realise their full potential and reduce the immigrant-native labour market hierarchies.

Attitudes toward immigration in Europe: Cross-regional differences.

Background: This article investigates how European public opinion has responded to short-term variations in regional immigration over the past decade (2010-2019). Methods: Combining data from the European Social Survey and the European Union Labour Force Survey and using multilevel modelling, we test how natives' opinions over migration policy and the contribution of immigrants to society have changed with the net rate of international migrants in 183 EU regions from 21 countries. Results: We find that while European natives living in regions with a higher share of foreign-born populations are generally less anti-immigrant, a short-term increase in the number of immigrants within a given region is associated with more negative attitudes. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the importance of temporal dynamics for attitudes to immigration. They also point to the relevance of regional variations in attitudes beside cross-country differences.

Factors impacting the Czech employees' job satisfaction

The article aimed to explore the drivers of employees' job satisfaction. Empirically, the study is based on the Czech data from the 2017 edition of the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS), accounting for 12,699 employed individuals. The implemented methods relied on the employment of the multivariate ordered logistic regression analysis. The estimated model found empirical support for the significance of job-related determinants and individual characteristics. The main findings are that job satisfaction is significantly related to the organization's size, skill level classification of the profession, supervisory responsibilities, working hours, level of education and years of experience. The highest levels of job satisfaction were, on average, observed among highly skilled professions, especially in managerial occupations. From the perspective of the organization's size, employees working in organizations with less than ten persons were, on average, mostly satisfied with their jobs. The study contributes to a better understanding of the drivers of job satisfaction from the context of the Central-European country, and it offers several suggestions for future research.

Multiple jobholding and non-standard employment among young workers: a comparative analysis of EU-28 member states

ABSTRACT This article presents a comparative analysis of multiple jobholding and non-standard employment among young people in EU-28 member states. This work contributes to the understanding of multiple jobholding among youth by connecting the empirical work to the issues of labour market flexibilisation in Europe. The database used is the European Union Labour Force Survey for 2019. Non-standard forms of employment have a positive effect on the likelihood of secondary jobholding, especially part-time work. There is a high rate of multiple jobholding in Nordic countries, whereas it is low in Mediterranean, Central and Eastern European countries, where the time spent in second jobs is high. Finally, there are statistically significant differences in the propensity toward multiple jobholding according to level of education, gender, age, and country of birth, while there is no noticeable effect of over-qualification, although there is on the search for another job.