Employment: report shows lower skilled workers face increasing difficulties to find a job
24 Jun 2014 10:30 AM
Low-skilled workers encounter increasing difficulties to
find a job, face lower job stability and are out-competed by medium-skilled
workers even in elementary occupations. In contrast, job opportunities are
growing in some high-skilled professions. These are the main findings of
the European Vacancy and Recruitment Report
2014 published yesterday. The report also highlights the increase in
temporary and part-time work during the crisis and underlines the need to
better support school-to-work transitions, to decrease segmentation of the
labour markets and to up-skill jobseekers, particularly the low
qualified.
László Andor, Commissioner for Employment,
Social Affairs and Inclusion, said: "Persistent labour market
segmentation and weak economic recovery mean that many people are excluded from
job opportunities and risk falling into poverty. Employment prospects for those
with poor education are dire unless they acquire the right set of skills and
competences sought by employers. We must urgently strengthen support for
transitions on the labour market, in particular through the Youth Guarantee. We
also need to invest in training and career development schemes addressing the
lower skilled. The European Social Fund provides important financial support
for all of this".
The
Vacancy Report analyses the diverging nature of employment in EU Member States
during the recession. It identifies three clusters of countries according to
their labour market conditions:
-
a
first group of countries worst hit by the recession (such as Greece, Spain and
Portugal) where young workers relied on elementary jobs with poor
prospects
-
a
second cluster led by best performers during the crisis (such as Austria,
Sweden and Germany), where hiring fell marginally yet good matching existed
between educational and job skill levels
-
a
third cluster consisting of countries (such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia)
characterised by labour market shortages in certain high-skilled
professions.
The
report presents the following key findings:
-
Employment: at 218 million, average EU
employment in 2012 was 2.6% less than in 2008. Only five countries (Austria,
Belgium, Germany, Malta and Sweden) have recovered both their pre-crisis GDP
and employment levels.
-
Vacancies and hiring: the number
of vacancies went down by 19% and hirings by 14% on average between 2008 and
2012, with considerable variation between countries. In particular, there was a
sharp decline in people recruited in eastern and southern Member States, with
reductions of 25% or more below pre-crisis levels in Greece, Romania, Slovenia,
Slovakia and Spain.
-
Young jobseekers: Young people
with low qualifications were worst affected by the crisis - hiring fell by one
third (-31%) comparing the second quarter in 2013 with 2008. Young people
generally enjoy a high rate of hiring, but this is not reflected by a
significant reduction in youth unemployment due to high
turnover.
-
Types of contracts: temporary and
non-standard contracts rose between 2008 and 2012. In 2012, 58% of all hiring
was through temporary contracts, most of them involuntary, showing that
jobseekers are forced to accept temporary or part-time positions. In
'elementary occupations', more than 70% of people recruited were
on temporary contracts. The report warns of the potential adverse effects of
temporary employment on career development.
-
Occupational demand: occupations
with higher level skills largely dominate the fastest growing professions.
Software and sales professionals, as well as personal care workers and nurses
in the health services show robust growth in employment. Jobs requiring low to
intermediate skills, in particular those requiring manual skills, were among
those with the largest decline in employees between 2011 and 2012. The fall in
employee numbers was particularly sharp in the construction sector (-17% on
average in the EU, but -50% in Greece, Ireland, Lithuania and Spain) and in
manufacturing industry (-10% on average in the EU, but -20% or more in the same
countries).
-
Education requirements: the share
of hiring for the low qualified is contracting across all major occupational
groups, including in 'elementary occupations' (-4% between 2008 and
2014). This is particularly the case in the Baltic countries and even more so
in Portugal. This may be an indication of worsening labour market conditions,
causing medium skilled workers to fill low skilled jobs.
The
findings of the report highlight the need for Member States to implement policy
initiatives designed to better support jobseekers, such as the Youth Guarantee. Funding from EU Structural Funds is available to help
Member States to address the economic and social challenges Europe faces
between now and 2020, including more than €80 billion (in current prices)
to be invested in human capital via the European Social
Fund (see MEMO/13/1011).
Background
The
European Vacancy and Recruitment Report presents an in-depth analysis of
current trends in the European labour market focusing on changes in the
recruitment demand for skills.
The first edition of the
report was published in December 2012. This second edition traces developments
in recruitment over the last five years using a combination of data on people
recruited and job vacancies, and provides an insight into their implications on
employment.
For more information
News item on DG Employment
website
Monitoring the job market in EU
László Andor's
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Contacts
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Dubois (+32 2 295 18 83)