European Union Labour Force Survey Research Articles

Working from home in European countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

AbstractWe use data from the representative EU Labour Force Survey for 28 countries and document the levels of working from home in 2011–2022. This period is relevant as it includes the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show significant differences in working from home across countries, industries, and occupations. Working from home has increased in several sample countries and almost all industries and occupations in the 2011–2019 period and more significantly in the years affected by the pandemic. Although there is a general decline in working from home in 2022, the prevalence of working from home remains generally well above the pre-pandemic levels. We show that the rise in working from home is associated with lower employment losses during the pandemic years. We also compute a measure of working from home capacity for the sample countries using the observed working from home levels.

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.

The Youth Guarantee, Vulnerability, and Social Exclusion Among NEETs in Southern Europe

Young people neither in employment, education, or training (NEETs) are particularly vulnerable to social and economic exclusion. Indeed, recognition of this fact was a key motivating factor underlying the development of the Youth Guarantee. This article uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey and EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions to examine how the characteristics of the NEET population and their associated vulnerability to social exclusion vary across different sub-groups of young NEETs and how this has changed in Italy, Portugal, and Spain since 2015. The analysis focuses on the determinants of NEET status, youth vulnerability to poverty and social exclusion, and also examines the propensity of young NEETs to engage with public employment services in order to assess the extent to which young people most at risk of social exclusion are within the purview of the Youth Guarantee’s activities. The article highlights how the composition and vulnerability of young NEETs have altered between 2015 and 2021. While the risks of poverty and social exclusion of long-term unemployed NEETs have remained unchanged since 2015, the vulnerability of the most at-risk subgroup of young people, those who are NEET due to family responsibilities, has become more pronounced. Moreover, the engagement with public employment services of the most at-risk NEET sub-groups has remained persistently low. The findings suggest that greater efforts are needed to remove the obstacles to labour market re-integration faced by the most vulnerable groups within the purview of the programme and, above all, young women with family responsibilities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Measuring the unmeasurable: defining and rating precarity with the aid of EU-LFS data

Precarity has been established as a central theoretical issue in labour market research and numerous attempts have been made in the past to provide indicators that measure it. Precarity has also been present in political discourse and linked to specific new forms of employment (temporary, part-time, insecure, and atypical amongst others) and certain social groups often defined as vulnerable groups (youth, women, ethnic minorities). However, precarity still remains a phenomenon that needs to be quantified with the use of reliable data. The present paper aims at providing a methodology for measuring individuals that are in precarious employment with data drawn from the EU-Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). Thus, it presents a way of identifying individuals in the core of precarity and others that belong to this set to a lesser degree. More specifically, four different levels of precarity are identified and the methodology is illustrated and tested for a specific case study, that of Greece. However, the proposed technique can be applied with no or minor modifications to other data sets of EU member states, where the common EU-LFS questionnaire is used. An effort is also made to recognise the socio-demographic characteristics of the individuals that are identified as being precarious belonging to the four levels of precarity and to specify their differences. The analysis yields that as we move from the fist level of weak precarity to the last one of strong precarity the individuals become younger, worse paid and better educated.

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.

Telework Trends in Europe: Who are Up-and-Coming, Leaders, Losing Ground or Laggards?

Abstract Telework in Europe has seen a significant surge, especially due to technological advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses on the incidence and changes in telework in European countries before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes a classification of European countries in terms of share of teleworkers and the rate of increase in teleworking. This classification provides insights into the varying stages of teleworking adoption across different European countries and can be used by practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Furthermore, we focus on Greece as a critical example of digital underachievement. The study uses data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and covers the European Union countries, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The paper shows that the pandemic significantly boosted remote work across Europe. However, the disparity in remote work adoption between regions within Europe remains significant displaying a divide between North-Western and South-Eastern Europe regarding remote work adoption.

Employment situation among long-term Hodgkin lymphoma survivors in Europe: an analysis of patients from nine consecutive EORTC-LYSA trials.

Little is known about the employment situation of long-term Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivors despite their young age at diagnosis and the favorable prognosis of the disease. In this cross-sectional study, we aim to describe the employment situation in a cohort of long-term HL survivors compared to the general population and investigate the associations with disease characteristics and treatment exposure. HL survivors > 25years (n = 1961) were matched 1:25 to controls (n = 49,025) from the European Union Labour Force Survey. Individual treatment information was obtained from trial records. Employment and socio-demographic characteristics were collected using the Life Situation Questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between disease and treatment characteristics with employment status and work-related attitudes. At employment assessment, 69.7% of survivors (95% CI: 67.6-71.7%) were working; of these, 68.9% (95% CI: 66.3-71.3%) worked full-time, a figure comparable to that of controls (p value 0.17). The risk of not working was associated with increasing age at diagnosis, increasing age at survey, female sex, lower educational level, and relapse history. Of those who were at work during treatment, 16.8% (95% CI: 14.5-19.3%) stated their income had subsequently decreased, which was attributed to their HL by 65.4% (95% CI: 57.5-72.8). Among those not at work, 25.1% (95% CI: 20.7-29.8) survivors were disabled compared to only 14.5% (95% CI: 13.8-15.3%) of controls. In this cohort of HL survivors, employment status was comparable to that of the general population. However, increasing age at follow-up, female sex, lower educational level, and relapse history are risk factors for unemployment, a perceived decrease in income, and disability. To further improve follow-up care, special attention should be paid to these vulnerable subgroups.

National work-family policies and the occupational segregation of women and mothers in European countries, 1999-2016.

Some scholars hypothesize that although work-family policies help incorporate women into the labour market, they do so by integrating women, and mothers specifically, into female-dominated occupations. Some suggest that although these policies are 'good' for lower educated women, they harm higher educated women by concentrating them in female-dominated professions. We revisit this debate using the highest quality data brought to bear on this question to date. We use the EU Labour Force Survey 1999-2016 (n = 21 countries, 235 country-years, 2.5 million men and women aged 20-44), combined with an original collection of country-year indicators. Specifically, we examine how the two most widely studied work-family policies-paid parental leave and early childhood education and care (ECEC)-and public sector size affect occupational segregation for men and women by educational attainment and parental status. We find no evidence that 'generous' welfare states promote segregation. Rather, a specific policy-parental leave in excess of 9 months-promotes segregation between men and women broadly, but most acutely for non-tertiary-educated mothers. Findings are generally null for paid leave of up to 9 months. ECEC is associated with greater integration, particularly for tertiary-educated women. Large public sectors are associated with segregation, with both tertiary-educated men and women more likely to work in feminized occupations. Public sector size, however, is not as tightly bundled with work-family policies as previous work suggests.

Cross-National Variation in the Relationship between Welfare Generosity and Single Mother Employment

Reform of the U.S. welfare system in 1996 spurred claims that cuts to welfare programs effectively incentivized single mothers to find employment. It is difficult to assess the veracity of those claims, however, absent evidence of how the relationship between welfare benefits and single mother employment generalizes across countries. This study combines data from the European Union Labour Force Survey and the U.S. Current Population Survey (1992-2015) into one of the largest samples of single mothers ever, testing the relationships between welfare generosity and single mothers’ employment and work hours. We find no consistent evidence of a negative relationship between welfare generosity and single mother employment outcomes. Rather, we find tremendous cross-national heterogeneity, which does not clearly correspond to well-known institutional variations. Our findings demonstrate the limitations of single country studies and the pervasive, salient interactions between institutional contexts and social policies.

Monitoring Early Employment Security in Greece

In the present paper, the composite indicator of early employment security introduced in Symeonaki et al. (2022) is used to measure and monitor early employment security in Greece. The composite indicator is estimated for the year 2018 using raw data drawn from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and is compared with its values for the years 2008 and 2016 which mark the beginning and the end of the economic crisis given in Symeonaki et al. (2022). More specifically, ten indicators are estimated to refer to three different domains capturing the entire procedure of the school-to-work transition of a young individual. The domains refer to the conditions that young individuals might face when entering the labor market, i.e., the labor market conditions, the quality of jobs that are accessible to them, and the transition smoothness when transferring from education and/or training to the labor market. The composite indicator synopsizes the many facets of school-to-work transition and reveals a very slight improvement for the year 2018 when compared to the year 2016. Nonetheless, the value of the early employment security indicator a decade after the economic crisis is still behind its value in 2008, implying that the country had not fully recovered in 2018 about early job insecurity.