Labour Market

EPSCO
One task of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) is to adopt European rules to harmonise or coordinate national laws, e.g. on working conditions. Since employment and social protection polices remain the responsibility of the Member States, the Community's contribution is confined to setting common objectives for all the Member States, analysing measures taken at national level and adopting recommendations to the Member States.
Consilium

Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
In partnership with national authorities, social partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion addresses challenges linked to globalisation, the ageing of Europe's population and changing social realities.
European Commission

Employment Committee
The Employment Committee plays an important role in the development of the European Employment Strategy. The Employment Committee prepares discussions in the Council each autumn of the employment package: the Employment Guidelines, Joint Employment Report and Recommendations on the implementation of national employment policies. It has developed close working relations with the EU's Economic Policy Committee, the Social Protection Committee and the Education Committee.
European Commission

Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union
Free movement of workers is a fundamental principle of the 1957 Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union and developed by EU secondary legislation and the Case law of the Court of Justice. It was introduced from an economic point of view and is underpinning the concept of a European labour market. At first the right was linked to a person’s status as a salaried workers, but the right was later extended to self-employed persons, service providers, students and unemployed looking for work.

Free movement of workers entails that EU citizens are entitled to look for a job in another EU country, work there without needing a work permit, reside there for that purpose and stay there even after employment has finished. Furthermore, EU citizens enjoy equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages.
Eurofound, Eurofound, European Commission

Unemployment
Since 2011, the economic slowdown has gradually turned into recession in the EU. As a result, unemployment has reached levels not seen in more than a decade. A new divide is emerging between countries that seem trapped in a downward spiral of falling output, massively rising unemployment and eroding disposable incomes and those that have at least so far shown some resilience, partly thanks to better functioning labour markets and more robust welfare systems.
European Commission

Potential Skills Deficit
Europe, potentially, faces a major skills problem in the near future. As Europe’s population ages, its pool of human capital will be reduced at a time when Europe is facing growing competition from other regions of the world. These regions will have increased quality of education, demographic expansion, and therefore access to very large, well-educated young populations. Thus, it will further raise global competition and the need to have a well-performing European labour market.

There is considerable evidence of increasing needs for people with adequate levels of qualification in Europe. But the young generation entering the labour market in the next decade cannot fulfil all the labour market skill needs. For Europe to remain competitive, policies need to be in place to ensure that the workforce can adapt to these requirements.
Cedefop, EPC

Interruption in Employment Recovery
The EU labour market in 2011 was marked by a sudden interruption of the timid employment recovery from the financial crisis. The EU is the only major world region where unemployment is not falling. The current weakening of the labour market is mostly the result of worsening economic activity linked to the aggravation of the sovereign crisis. In some countries, tackling the debt crisis required a resolute fiscal adjustment, which had an impact on output and employment.
European Commission

Structural Unemployment
The evidence indicates that unemployment is becoming increasingly structural. The same amount of job vacancies coexists with higher unemployment, an indication of worsening labour market matching. Job shedding in the past years concerned especially the low-skilled, which are often characterised by a relatively low capacity to re-convert to different activities and tasks, and whose employability tends to fall with the duration of the unemployment spell.
European Commission

Developments in Wages and Labour Costs
After growing above productivity in 2009, real compensation per employee in 2011 expanded at a rate below that of productivity. This wage moderation is much needed for adjusting labour markets in high-unemployment countries. Also unit labour cost developments are increasingly following patterns supportive of external re-balancing. Price competitiveness developments, however, appear somehow delinked from those in labour cost competitiveness.
European Commission

The Europe 2020 Strategy
The financial and economic crisis reversed many of the developments witnessed within European labour markets since 2000. With the aim of stimulating economic recovery, the European Commission has set up the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy. Two of its flagship initiatives concern labour market issues, namely 'An agenda for new skills and jobs' and 'Youth on the move'. Furthermore, a headline target of the strategy is to ensure that by 2020, 75 % of 20 to 64 year-olds in the EU-27 are employed.
Eurostat

“Youth on the move” aims to improve young people's chances of finding a job by helping students and trainees gain experience in other countries, and improving the quality and attractiveness of education and training in Europe. “An agenda for new skills and jobs” aims to give fresh momentum to labour market reforms to help people gain the right skills for future jobs, to create new jobs and overhaul EU employment legislation.
European Commission

Unemployment
Eurostat estimates that 26.595 million men and women in the EU-28, of whom 19.178 million were in the euro area (EA-17), were unemployed in August 2013. Compared with August 2012, unemployment rose by 882 000 in the EU-28 and by 895 000 in the euro area. The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 12.0 % in August 2013; it was 11.5 % in August 2012. The EU-28 unemployment rate was 10.9 % in August 2013; it was 10.6 % in August 2012.
Eurostat

Youth Unemployment
In August 2013, 5.499 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-28, of whom 3.457 million were in the euro area. Compared with August 2012, youth unemployment decreased by 123 000 in the EU-28 and by 52 000 in the euro area. In August 2013, the youth unemployment rate was 23.3 % in the EU-28 and 23.7 % in the euro area, compared with 23.1 % and 23.4 % respectively in August 2012.
Eurostat

Labour Costs
Average hourly labour costs varied widely across the EU Member States in 2012. Hourly labour costs in the business economy ranged from EUR 38.44 in Denmark, EUR 37.70 in Belgium and EUR 41.9 in Sweden, to EUR 3.7 in Bulgaria. Note that these figures cover not only wages and salaries (gross earnings) as well as social contributions paid by the employer, but also vocational training costs, taxes and other expenditure paid by the employer less subsidies received by the enterprise.
Eurostat