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The literature review has clearly indicated that the scale and characteristics of demand for Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences experts across different countries is unknown. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate this issue. This paper presents the results of research on the real demand for GEES specialists. In the paper, real demand is expressed by job vacancies (N = 17 378) published in six European countries over a period of 18 months. To analyse such an extensive body of text data, we used data mining techniques such as: SVD, inter-factor correlation analysis, word frequency analysis and word significance indicators, which allowed us to recognise similarities and differences in the size and structure of demand for these specialists in specific groups of countries. Employers from the UK and Ireland offered the most comprehensive range of positions whereas the expectations of Polish employers were the least diverse. Word frequency analyses for each occupation group demonstrated which components of GEES experts' knowledge and skills are considered universal on the labour market and which are subject to substantial regional variations. Moreover, word significance analyses allowed us to identify the occupations where a wider range of general skill areas was required and the positions for which primarily geographic skills were in demand.

This paper analyses the potential of micro-credentials in adult education through upcoming EU policies and initiatives, bearing in mind the increasing use of online learning platforms globally. Understanding national and international approaches to micro-credentials allows undergraduate programmes and teaching practices to flourish in economically less developed countries. The Republic of Serbia welcomes new approaches in the search for acceptable models of distance learning and equality in the labour market.

Since the mid 1990s vocational and education and training systems across Europe have had to respond to a number of external factors which have transformed the demand for skills. This paper examines the way in which VET systems have responded to the external factors and increase their resilience in the face of external shocks of one kind or another. The paper also reveals the way in which VET increasing established itself as a mainstream option for young people over the same period because of its capacity to deliver skills which the labour market demands.

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the development track of skills mismatch research and discover the hidden internal connections between literature. Design/methodology/approach: The authors gathered data through scientometric quantitative analysis using CiteSpace. Specifically, this article applied basic analysis, journal cocitation analysis (JCA), author cocitation analysis (ACA) and document cocitation analysis (DCA), cluster analysis, citation burstness detection, scientific research cooperation analysis and coconcurrence analysis of keywords of 3,125 documents from Web of Science core collections for the period 2000-2020. Findings: Through the document cocitation analysis and the keywords' co-occurrence, this article identifies influential scholars, documents, research institutions, journals and research hotspots in research on the skills mismatch phenomenon. The results showed that the publications had ballooned, and the phenomenon has become an interdisciplinary research subject. The USA and Finland remain the main contributors, which is attributed to their high-yield institutions such as the University of Helsinki, the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Washington and so on. While the African continent lacks research on skills mismatch even with the continent's effort to overcome such a crucial issue. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of skills and educational mismatch issues to better understand the evolutionary trajectory of the collective knowledge over the past 20 years and highlight the areas of active pursuit. Research limitations/implications: The authors only used Web of Science core collection to collect data; however, they can added Scopus indexed database as well to extend the research trends and explore more new research hot topics to solve the skills mismatch phenomenon. Originality/value: The scientometric analysis is of great significance for identifying the potential relationship between the literature and investigating the knowledge evolution of skills mismatch research. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization are the giants who are mostly concerned of the mismatch skills phenomenon. Researchers can refer to this study to understand the status quo, gaps and research trends to deal with the skills mismatch issue.

While European governance of individual policy sectors has received considerable academic scrutiny, less attention has been paid to the development of intersectoral coordination. This paper charts the emergence of a supranational boundary-spanning policy regime (BSPR) in education and employment in Europe. By looking at issues, ideas, interests and institutions, we gain a deeper understanding of the conditions for the emergence and further institutionalisation of European intersectoral coordination in education and employment from the 1990s onwards. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with European policy-makers in education and employment and EU policy documents. We analyse how endogenous and exogenous factors frame (policy) issues that contribute to the emergence and further strengthening of intersectoral coordination, the extent to which "ideas" for European education and employment stress intersectoral policy designs, how "interests" support or hinder intersectoral work, and which "institutions" are developed with an intersectoral reasoning. We find that endogenous forces (rather than exogenous ones) played a significant role in the emergence of a European BSPR in education and employment. Structural aspects and policy instruments ("institutions"), alongside "ideas" and "interests," then contribute to the institutionalisation of the European BSPR in education and employment.

This paper focuses on the increasing prominence of digital labour platforms in the labour markets of Southeast Europe, and compares the supply of online labour from nine selected countries: Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Digital labour platforms, as an innovative business model, play an important role in today's labour markets by linking the demand and supply of digital work. Southeast Europe is no exception to this trend, and has become an important supplier of online labour. With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, this and other new forms of employment further increased both globally and in Southeast Europe. Despite this trend, online labour often remains invisible and under the radar of national policymakers and regulators, as well as national statistical agencies, due to the globalised nature of online platforms. This paper aims to shed light on the development of online labour in the countries studied, based on publicly available data collected through Gigmetar, a web scraping tool designed to monitor trends on the number, gender, incomes, and occupations of online workers.1 The paper compares online labour from nine countries active on the most significant general digital labour platforms (Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru) from February 2022 to October 2022. The criteria for the comparison include occupations, 2 gender and income. The analysis is based on the data of approximately 80% of the total number of active digital workers on the platforms under investigation. The paper points out the similarities and differences in online labour between the countries of Southeast Europe. For example, the number of online workers increased in all the countries, with creative services and multimedia and software development comprising the most dominant occupations in each country. Moreover, men are more commonly represented in these digital markets than women. However, these generalities hide remarkable differences between the countries in terms of the number of online workers per capita, the comparative advantages of each country based on the composition of the online labour force in terms of professions, variations in the gender gap in income distribution, and the average hourly labour price demanded by workers. The results of our analysis may provide useful information to national policy makers as they work to address the challenges in the labour market brought by technological advancements. This information can also be used to develop policies in areas such as labour rights, education and training, and gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the distinct effects of linguistics distance and language literacy on the labor market integration of migrant men and women. Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2018 in 16 countries of destination mainly from Europe and more than 110 languages of origin, we assess migrant labor force participation, employment, working hours, and occupational prestige. The study finds that linguistics distance of the first language studied has a significant negative association with labor force participation, employment, and working hours of migrant women, even after controlling for their abilities in their destination language, education, and cultural distance between the country of origin and destination. In contrast, linguistics distance is only negatively associated with migrant men's working hours. This suggests that linguistic distance serves as a proxy for cultural aspects, which are not captured by cultural distance and hence shape the labor market integration of migrant women due to cultural factors rather than human capital. We suggest that the gender aspect of the effect of language proximity is essential in understanding the intersectional position of migrant women in the labor force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to shed light on the link between 'onward migration' and 'onward precarity' as an experience of continuous precariousness by paying attention to crisis/post-crisis contexts and how these contexts have led to precarity becoming structurally embedded in migrant labour markets in Europe. Onward migration studies have centrally focused on crisis contexts, but very little attention has been paid to post-crisis contexts. Thus, this article contributes to complementing the previous research on onward migration and onward precarity. The paper follows a qualitative and multi-sited approach based on in-depth interviews and discussion groups with Latin American migrants living in Madrid, Lisbon, and London. Our empirical analysis elucidates that labour mobility and onward migration are embedded in intersectional dynamics of exclusion which entail a continuous experience of multifaceted precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accompanied by public demands to reduce migration by creating perspectives 'at home', employability projects have become an important component of migration and development policies. While research has revealed the sedentarism underlying these policies and questioned the effectiveness thereof, more recent work has found that stakeholders are, in fact, aware of the potential increase of migration. However, contrary to analyses that hold that such interventions are carried out because they meet the different interests of both migration and development actors, this paper argues that migration and development interventions are mutually implicated. Examining European employability projects in Tunisia and drawing on interviews with representatives of donors and implementing organisations as well as policy documents, this paper argues that employability activities operate through twofold depoliticised logics. Whereas the focus on employability enables isolating migration from politicised debates across Europe, these interventions promote depoliticised logics of neoliberal selectivity. In centring skills in these interventions, some subjects are rendered employable for the Tunisian and, potentially, European labour market. Others, in turn, are excluded from the participation in migration and development due to a lack of sought-after skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid technological change – the digitalization and automation of work – is challenging contemporary welfare states. Most of the existing research, however, focuses on its effect on labor market outcomes, such as employment or wage levels. In contrast, this paper studies the implications of technological change for welfare state attitudes and preferences. Compared to previous work on this topic, this paper adopts a much broader perspective regarding different kinds of social policy. Using data from the European Social Survey, we find that individual automation risk is positively associated with support for redistribution, but negatively with support for social investment policies (partly depending on the specific measure of automation risk that is used), while there is no statistically significant association with support for basic income. We also find a moderating effect of the overall size of the welfare state on the micro-level association between risk and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas there are recent papers on the effect of robot adoption on employment and wages, there is no evidence on how robots affect non‐monetary working conditions. We explore the impact of robot adoption on several domains of non‐monetary working conditions in Europe over the period 1995–2005 combining information from the World Robotics Survey and the European Working Conditions Survey. In order to deal with the possible endogeneity of robot deployment, we employ an instrumental variables strategy, using the robot exposure by sector in other developed countries as an instrument. Our results indicate that robotization has a negative impact on the quality of work in the dimension of work intensity and no relevant impact on the domains of physical environment or skills and discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Okun's law is one of the best-known stylized facts in the economic literature, as well as one of the most widely used policy tools. The aim of this paper, which utilizes a comprehensive sample of 265 European regions by using annual observations covering the period from 2000 to 2019, is to deepen our knowledge of Okun's law from two perspectives: on one hand, by checking the existence and intensity of regional differences, and on the other hand, by assessing the factors that explain them. To this end, in the first part, we apply a heterogeneous panel approach that deals with cross-sectional dependence, which allows us to obtain an average coefficient as well as region-specific coefficients. In the second part, a cross-sectional spatial model is used to uncover explanatory factors. Our findings reveal quite remarkable regional differences, as well as a somewhat geographical pattern in them. Moreover, they point out the importance of demographic factors (such as gender and age), labor market variables (share of employment in industry and construction, as well as self-employment and part-time employment and the severity of long-term unemployment), R&D expenditure, and some national institutional factors when it comes to explaining differences across regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising employment uncertainty featured by higher risks of being temporarily employed or unemployed is often seen as the driving force behind delayed and declined partnering in Western countries. However, such an employment–partnering relationship is contextualized by labour market institutions and thus could diverge across countries over time. This paper aims to investigate how country-level variations in labour market regulations moderate individual-level effects of unstable employment on union formation, including the transitions into marriage or cohabitation unions. Using comparative panel data for 26 countries from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (the years 2010–2019), our multilevel fixed effects models showed that temporary employment and unemployment negatively affected the probability of union formation for single women and men in Europe. Moreover, the negative relationship between unstable employment and union formation was reinforced when labour market reforms were stimulating insider–outsider segregations or decreasing welfare provisions. Specifically, stricter employment protection legislations and higher coverage rates of collective bargaining agreements could reinforce the negative effects of temporary employment and unemployment on union formation, while more generous provisions of unemployment benefits could buffer such negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article contributes to the debate on how social policies and labour market regulation have been used to limit the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic by focusing on one specific economic segment of European labour markets: private consumption services, such as trade, tourism, catering and other support services. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis combines mixed methods and a variety of sources. First, we built a set of indicators from the EU-LFS microdata for 2019 and the 2018 Eurostat "Structure of earnings survey" and performed a cluster analysis (k-means) on the dimensions and indicators considered. Second, we elaborated EU-LFS data covering 2019 and 2020 (by quarter) and OECD 2020 data, and finally we traced Covid-related policy reforms for the period March 2020–December 2021 and analysed documents and information collected in different policy repositories. Findings: The paper shows the relevance and characteristics of private consumption services in different countries, demonstrating that so-called labour market "outsiders" are highly represented in this sector and illustrates the policies adopted to respond to the pandemic in different European countries. The paper asks whether this emergency has been a window of opportunity to redefine regulation in this sector, making it more inclusive. It demonstrates, however, that the common approach in Europe has been dominated by temporary, short-term and one-off measures, which do not represent major changes to the social security schemes that were in place before the pandemic. Originality/value: This article builds on the literature on labour market dualization, but approaches the concept from a different perspective – one not centred on the nature of employment relations (stable/unstable) but on economic sectors/branches. This article does not, therefore, discuss in general terms what happened to labour market outsiders during the pandemic, but rather focus attention on a specific group of workers who are highly exposed to risks stemming from dualization: those employed in the private consumption services. The economic sector perspective is an integrative way of framing dualization which is still under-researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to identify new job creation in Europe and analyzes different findings from literature sources about trends that are currently more active. With work, we can refer to an activity that is carried out by one or more people voluntarily to achieve payment. And by work trend, we refer to that type of work which has gained a greater expansion and is being worked on more in the European market, not every time it is meant that that work is paid more but that it is simply being demanded more by companies, businesses, institutions private or public. The methodology used for this paper is a literature review of the latest research and data about job creation in Europe. The labor market in Europe recently started to change a lot, especially during and after the pandemic, thus enabling great growth in the technology sector. Considering that new technologies are constantly coming into this stream, new opportunities are also being made possible. But not always with good results, as Al technology is predicted to replace thousands of workforces in the future. The strongest growth of jobs is predicted in professional, scientific, and services technical, as well as in human health and social work, while the biggest drop can happen in production. Technology has and will continue to create new jobs, recently we can often see calls for training for web-developer, application developers, media managers, influencers, etc. Therefore, from this research review, we concluded that the main driver of job creation in Europe has been the service sector, which accounts for almost 80% of total employment in the EU. In recent years, the demand for highly skilled workers has increased, mainly due to the increased demand for ICT and other technology-related skills. Additionally, the digitization of manufacturing has led to a demand for workers with technological skills in the manufacturing sector. From all mentioned above it would be highly recommended that the European labor market be more careful about the future steps and invest in the right paths for better development in the future, such as pieces of training, education, diversity, and also on the latest technology trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the gender gap in time allocation in European countries, offering a comparison of the 2000s and the 2010s, along with an explanation of the documented gender gaps, based on social norms and institutional factors. The results show that the gender gap in both paid and unpaid work has decreased in most countries, but with a significant level of cross-country heterogeneity in the size of the gender gaps. More traditional social norms are related to greater gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work, while countries with better family-friendly policies and a greater representation of women in politics and in the labour market exhibit smaller gender inequalities. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of gender gaps in Europe, and attempts to monitor the progress towards the elimination of gender inequalities. Despite that some degree of gender convergence in paid and unpaid work has taken place, there remain inequalities in the distribution of labour in European countries, and possible solutions may be related to social norms and family-friendly policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political debates about immigration provoke strong nationalistic pushback from citizens, constraining the policymaking capacity of states. This paper investigates to what extent labour market policies shape economically motivated preferential divides among European citizens. On the one hand, I concentrate on prospective job loss threats indicative of economic grievances and assess the impact of unemployment risk exposure on immigration policy attitudes. On the other hand, as the original contribution of the paper, I contend that, if such an economically motivated explanation holds, this relationship should vary based on the labour market institutions in each country. Multi‐level analyses of 16 European countries over a decade since 2002 reveal a remarkably robust relationship between unemployment risks and more restrictive immigration policy attitudes. Importantly, more protective employment regulations seem to have a dampening effect on the impact of job loss threats on immigration policy attitudes. Conversely, there are larger attitudinal divides between the risk‐exposed and the more secure workers in countries with generous and expansive unemployment compensation policies. Overall, the paper helps explain the cross‐national variation in economically motivated cleavages about immigration policy attitudes in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing up in socio-economic disadvantage has important and long-lasting effects on children's lives. Children from disadvantaged households often fall behind in many areas of well-being and development, with effects that continue to limit their opportunities and outcomes – including their health and labour market outcomes – long after they reach adulthood. Drawing on Europe-wide survey data from 27 countries, this paper explores how childhood socio-economic disadvantage affects later adult labour market and health outcomes and evaluates the country-level GDP-equivalent cost of childhood disadvantage due to lost employment, lost earnings, and lost health, as well as the costs of lost government revenue and extra benefit spending. Results point to large costs for societies from childhood socio-economic disadvantage, totalling on average the equivalent of 3.5% of GDP annually. We also show that the labour market penalties linked to childhood disadvantage are often smaller in countries with lower absolute levels of disadvantage. While not causal evidence, these associations suggest much of the impact of childhood disadvantage in adulthood can be mitigated with the right environment and policy set up in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that inequalities between generations are most pronounced in the conservative European welfare states. However, it is likely that across all advanced capitalist societies superior earnings opportunities and steady employment are pursued at a later age due to secular labor market trends. In this paper, I examine the variation in generational inequalities across different regimes using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). The repeated cross‐sectional data allow me to trace the generational changes in income for eight countries, using both Age Period Cohort (APC) and synthetic cohort models. My results suggest that for most countries, cohorts born after 1980 have experienced lower entry‐level earning opportunities, relative to cohorts born between 1960 and 1980. However, synthetic cohort models suggest that while recent generations have suffered from successively worse entry positions, they appear to be "catching up," which suggests that permanent "scarring effects" to lifetime earnings may not be inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from 22 European countries this paper examines intra-household inequality between children and adults. Households allocate resources according to dynamic rules that consider age, gender, kinship and labor market participation. Parents and the unemployed are the most likely to experience deprivation. Extended co-residency is a helpful but limited strategy to reduce child poverty: extended households are more likely to protect children, but also to be poorer. The prioritization of children is nearly universal, with no evidence of an association between income or education and the prioritization of children. Individual deprivation data provide valuable information on intra-household inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe to analyze the effect of spousal health shocks on own labor supply decisions. The results suggest minimal changes to the probability of work and the intensity of work for both husbands and wives of disabled spouses. Wives do, however, experience an increase in the probability of retirement after their husbands experience a work-limiting health shock. The results suggest that this increased probability is due to the desire to consume joint leisure. Finally, the analysis finds substantial cross-regional heterogeneity in the effects that spousal health shocks have on the various labor market outcomes examined here, which suggests an important role for country-specific factors in the estimates provided in the earlier literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While unemployment rates in Europe declined after the global financial crisis until 2018/2019, the incidence of long-term unemployment, the share of people who have been unemployed for >1 year to the total unemployed, remained high. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic could aggravate the long-term unemployment. This paper explores the factors associated with long-term unemployment in European countries using a panel of 25 European countries over the period 2000–2018. We find that skill mismatches, labor market matching efficiency, and labor market policies are associated with the incidence of long-term unemployment. Among the different types of active labor market policies, training and startup incentives are found to be effective in reducing long-term unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent forced migration to Europe has created more challenges for the labor market integration. However, the Swedish government encourages unemployed immigrants to seek employment in the farming, gardening, and forestry industries. Thus, this article focuses on the matching process in the Swedish agricultural sector by using an exploratory, qualitative, in-depth interview with representatives involved in the matching process. Immigrants experience challenges of Swedish language proficiency, lacking a driving license and adapting to new cultures in the workplace, while employers attribute challenges of effective hiring process and the absence of evidence of immigrants' work experience. Furthermore, the employment service offices struggle with scant knowledge of agricultural employment that needs to be combined with limited contact with employers and the bureaucratic delays caused by requirements of qualifications validation. The paper concludes with a Labour Market Matching Model, which focuses on critical aspects before, during, and after the matching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the period of post-communist transition, Central Europe witnessed complex and multifaceted mobility processes; permanent outmigration, of an ethnic or labour-related nature, coexisted with temporary, seasonal, or crossborder movements and an increasing influx of foreigners. To study these complex processes, we have chosen to apply a holistic and comprehensive approach, rather than limit conceptual considerations to one theory of migration determinants. We focus on eleven post-communist countries that joined the European Union (EU-11) and on the period extending from around 1989, covering the EU's eastward enlargement, to the present. The aim of this study is twofold: first, we propose a general conceptual framework, based on the aspirations/capabilities approach, to present the main determinants of emigration from this part of the European continent. Second, in relation to each determinant, we formulate research questions postulated by selected theories of international migration and present the evidence, based on existing empirical studies, that addresses these questions. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a broad interpretation of post-transition mobility and pointing to commonly overlooked explanatory factors. We highlight the importance of economic factors that have enhanced and directed the outward migration from the EU-11 to selected EU member states and selected economic sectors; in particular, as regards capabilities, these factors include the lifting of labour market restrictions, high demand in the secondary sector of labour markets, and the roles of migration networks and the migration industry. Emphasis is also placed on aspirational factors, such as labour market failures and the substantial aspirational gap resulting from improvements in high educational attainment in the countries of origin. The aspirations/capabilities approach serves well as a general framework of migration determinants, but its explanatory power is enhanced by reference to other, more specific theories of migration. We show that a combination of the complementary approaches provides a more refined and in-depth picture of migration from the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent did the Covid-19 pandemic affect the tools, priorities and organisation of cultural policies? And did the pandemic enhance the digital aspect of these policies? This paper compares pandemic cultural policy measures in seven European countries to answer these questions. The countries all installed a plurality of mitigating measures, combining grants and subsidies, compensation of lost income, income support and financial flexibility, creating a tendency towards cultural policy turning into economic policy, fiscal policy, and labour market policy. Cultural policies have not been fundamentally challenged by the pandemic, in the sense that it has affected the essential political tools, divisions of labour, or core goals. The responses have confirmed an existing policy structure or enhanced existing developments. The importance of a state-centred or a federalist cultural policy system has not been challenged in a substantial way. Secondly there is little evidence to show a general acceleration of national digital cultural policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is frequently assumed that the inheritance of wealth undermines economic activity. If such an assumption is valid, the expected wave of bequests may have a negative impact on labour market activity of heirs, what might further weaken the financing of state pension systems. This paper provides a detailed review of the empirical findings on the associations of inheritances with labour market activity, that is labour force participation status and working hours, and presents own analyses based on the survey of health, ageing, and retirement in Europe. We find that the receipt of an inheritance is not related to labour force participation in general. Inheritance expectations even have a small, but statistically significant positive effect on remaining in the labour force for men. Women who expect an inheritance tend to reduce working hours, but the effect of having received an inheritance is not significant, neither for men nor for women. We conclude that the receipt of an inheritance will not affect labour market decisions, so that the expected wave of bequests will not undermine active ageing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skills needed in jobs and skills mismatches are important topics for research and policy in the field of economic development and the labour market. Understanding skill needs is essential for improving education and training policies, as labour markets experience dynamic transformation driven by rapid technological progress and increased complexity of work. On the other hand, knowledge economy is considered an important driver force of economic growth. This paper aims to assess skill needs in knowledge production and transfer occupations. We analyse data from online job advertisements and from the European Skills and Jobs Survey in order to provide a comprehensive picture of skills needed in occupations related to science, technology and ICT, as well as teaching positions from higher education in Europe. We find that workers involved in knowledge production and transfer activate in highly changing and challenging working environments. They differentiate themselves by other professionals and technicians mostly by the increased need for ICT skills, problem-solving, communication and learning skills, the ability to collaborate and adaptability. Our results are relevant for designing better education and training programs targeting occupations supporting knowledge production and transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the association between non-executive employee shareholding and financial reporting quality. The analysis is conducted using a sample of non-financial firms listed in eleven European countries between 2006 and 2017. We find a positive association between non-executive employee ownership and financial reporting quality. Furthermore, we find this positive association to be more pronounced for firms operating in the following settings: higher labour union density, more industry peer firms and more flexible labour market regulations. Overall, these findings support the view that employee shareholding enhances the quality of financial reporting by aligning the interests of employees with those of shareholders through two channels: reduced agency problems and enhanced employee retention. Our study contributes to the research on the impact of ownership characteristics on financial reporting incentives. It underscores the role non-executive employee ownership can play in improving a firm's corporate governance and therefore the quality of financial reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the many challenges faced by young people in the labor market. Between 2019 and 2020, 15- to 24-year-olds experienced a greater percentage loss in employment than adults. The isolation measures imposed by governments to reduce the spread of the virus caused many young people to lose their jobs. The move to distance education by educational institutions and steep declines in family incomes have made pursuing education and vocational training more difficult for many young people. In this context, unemployment among young people has increased, but also that of young people who do not have a job, are not included in an education or professional training system (NEET). Alarmingly, the global rate of young NEETs increased by 1.5 percentage points in 2020, reaching its highest level in 15 years. Even if modern Europe offers young people unprecedented opportunities, young people still face some challenges (exacerbated by the health and socio-economic crisis) related to education and training systems, but also to access to the labor market. The employment rate of 15-24-year-olds in the EU-27 was 40.8% in 2021, and the unemployment rate reached 16.6%. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of people's lives in an unprecedented way, with asymmetric socio-economic and health effects across age groups. The economic effects of the pandemic could exacerbate the vulnerability of young people in the labor market, as they are more likely to work in irregular jobs, such as temporary or part-time jobs, and face a greater risk of -loses jobs and income. On-the-job learning opportunities and apprenticeships have been severely affected. The significant financial pressures reported by young people put those living in (economically) vulnerable households at increased risk of falling below the poverty line within months if their income stops or drops sharply. The paper presents a brief comparative analysis of the situation of young people on the labor market, of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the main indicators of the youth labor market (15-24 years old), worldwide, in the major regions of the world and the EU-27. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy production is necessary for digital society; it is also beneficial for labor market and sustainable development. This paper examines the impact of renewable energy production on unemployment rate by employing panel NARDL-PMG and robust asymmetric quantile regression for European countries from 1991 to 2019. The results reveal that renewable energy production significantly reduced unemployment in European countries in long run. The renewable energy production effect is found significant in the asymmetric model, specifically, in European countries; a positive change in renewable energy production has a negative significant impact on unemployment, and a negative change in renewable energy production has a positive significant impact on unemployment in long run. The GDP, investment, and technology innovation process are found to be triggered in labor market by reducing the unemployment rate in the long run. In addition, the asymmetric effects of renewable energy production on unemployment growth are robust in the different quantile regression. The findings suggest some insightful policy implications for government officials and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops the concept of a rising invisible majority and explores the interconnections between the political economy context and the changing composition of European society. The concept illustrates how the transition from the Fordist to the neoliberal phase of capitalism is leading to a similar – if differently paced – transformation of the social composition across Europe. The material basis of the 'invisibility' manifests itself in a structural increase of unemployment, labour market precarization, and poverty. 'Invisibility' makes growing segments of the population less likely to participate in the institutions that regulate social life, while mainstream parties and trade unions no longer represent them adequately in the public arena. We suggest this trend will continue, and eventually concern a majority of the population, unless the neoliberal mechanisms of regulation are slowed or reversed. Enriching Polanyi's double movement logic, we hypothesise the existence of feedback effects from this transformation of the social composition to the political economy context that could lead to countermovements. Our reasoning is systematised in an analytical framework, complemented with a historical analysis of the Italian case, and a quantitative measurement of the magnitude of this transformation across 14 European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the dynamics of the scarring effect of youth unemployment over the business cycle in 12 European countries. On the one hand, we analyse differences associated with the negative effect of past unemployment experiences on future labour market status. And, on the other hand, we consider the potential stigmatization of prospective young workers – that is, the extent to which employers are more reluctant to hire individuals with a history of unemployment. Our results are based on data from the EU‐SILC for the period 2004 to 2015 and provide support in favour of a significant scarring effect of unemployment among youths that is highly heterogeneous across the countries under analysis and that increased substantially during the Great Recession. In contrast, the evidence of stigma effects was found to be rather weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having grandchildren is known to reduce individuals' labour supply. However, it is unclear whether there is a negative association between grandchild care provision and employment among grandparents. Moreover, we do not know how the magnitude of any association between the two activities may vary across countries characterised by different child-care policy regimes. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this paper investigates the association between daily grandchild care provision and two employment outcomes for grandmothers and grandfathers aged 50–69: the probability of being employed and the average weekly working hours. Recursive bivariate models are used to account for the potential selection of grandparents with different unobserved traits into work and family care. Estimates are compared across four country groups characterised by different child-care policy orientations: optional de-familisation, service de-familisation, supported familism and familism by default. On average, across 20 European countries, grandparents looking after grandchildren daily are no less likely to work than grandparents who do not; however, employed grandfathers work eight hours less per week if providing daily child care. Evidence of a negative association between daily grandchild care and employment is strongest in countries with familistic approaches to child care, with no association in countries characterised by optional de-familisation. This suggests that public support to child care may help retain grandparents in the labour force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors analyse how the receipt of a wealth transfer (inheritance or gift) affects labour force participation in 14 EU countries. They compare the effect of receiving an inheritance or a gift and investigate different behaviours at the gender level and educational level and for elderly individuals. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey for 14 European countries and adopt an instrumental variable approach. They use information on the type of donor (family and nonfamily) to infer the degree of anticipation of a wealth transfer. Findings: The authors find that unexpected wealth transfers have a negative impact on labour force participation, with a stronger impact for gifts than for inheritances. For gender, they find larger negative impacts for females than for males, which is in line with a weaker attachment to the labour market. Receiving an unexpected wealth transfer may also result in early retirement. Originality/value: The paper offers a novel comparison of the effect of receiving an inheritance or a gift on labour force participation using a unique European dataset. The authors investigate whether males and females react differently to the receipt of a wealth transfer and the existence of different responses at the educational level and for elderly individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the medium- to long-term effects on refugee labour market outcomes of the temporary employment bans being imposed on asylum seekers in many countries. Using a newly collected data set on employment restrictions together with individual data for refugees entering European countries between 1985 and 2012, our empirical strategy exploits the geographical and temporal variation in employment bans generated by their staggered introduction and removal coupled with frequent changes at the intensive margin. We find that exposure to a ban at arrival reduces refugee employment probability in post-ban years by 15%, an impact driven primarily by lower labour market participation. These effects are not mechanical, increase non-linearly in ban length, and last up to 10 years post arrival. The detrimental effects of employment bans are concentrated among less educated refugees, translate into lower occupational quality, and seem not to be driven by selective migration. Our causal estimates are robust to several identification tests accounting for the potential endogeneity of employment ban policies, including placebo analysis of non-refugee migrants and an instrumental variable strategy. We estimate a €37.6 billion output loss from the bans imposed on asylum seekers who arrived in Europe during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first systematic assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market for immigrant workers in Europe. The authors estimate that in 2020 extra-EU migrants were twice as likely and EU migrants were 1.6 times as likely to experience employment loss relative to comparable natives. To understand the determinants of these large gaps, the article focuses on three job characteristics— essentiality, temporariness, and teleworkability —and documents that migrants were overrepresented among essential, temporary, and low-teleworkable occupations at the onset of the pandemic. The authors estimate that pre-pandemic occupational sorting accounts for 25 to 35% of the explained migrant–native gap in the risk of employment termination, while sorting into industries accounts for the rest of the explained gap. More than half of this gap remains unexplained. Although major employment losses were averted thanks to the massive use of short-time work programs in Europe, migrant workers—particularly extra-EU migrants—suffered from high economic vulnerability during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how educational and initial vocational training systems in Europe vary regarding the way in which they structure educational routes for pupils of different academic ability. The study uses cluster analysis to explore the degree of similarity between 25 European countries, including variables related to: stratification within compulsory education; vocational orientation; links between initial vocational education and the labour market; transitions from secondary education; stratification within tertiary education; and links between educational qualifications and labour market outcomes. I identify three clusters of countries that have distinct patterns of stratification. This article contributes to the literature on educational regimes and school-to-work transitions by adding countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and integrating multiple dimensions pertaining to the link between educational and social stratification. Thus, it develops a more encompassing representation of the architecture of educational pathways in different European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Labor market competition theory has traditionally analyzed the threat perceived by lower and middle class' natives on competition over jobs with immigrants. However, in this article we focus on the fiscal burden and competition for social benefits generated by unemployed immigrants and its impact on the vote for Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs). Combining individual-level data and aggregate unemployment indicators for over 60 regions from 10 EU countries, we show that, on the one hand, upper class natives seem to support PRRPs when migrant unemployment rates are higher, irrespective of migrants' origin, which is consistent with the fiscal burden model. On the other hand, lower and middle class natives are more likely to support PRRPs only in contexts of higher unemployment rates among non-EU migrants (but not among migrants from other EU member states), pointing towards an interaction between cultural and economic explanations. These findings underscore the need to account for migrant populations' characteristics and to consider not only labor competition, but also the fiscal burden to better understand how unemployment may impact PRRP voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial job losses and an economic decline in European labour markets, with various effects observed at regional level. The unemployment rate experienced a sharp increase, disproportionately impacting the younger generation and individuals with limited skills. The prevalence of remote work has risen, creating difficulties in maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The three research questions concern: (1) examining scientific literature; (2) validating the effects of COVID-19 on the labour market; and (3) identifying the indicators and regions in Europe that have been most significantly affected. The study begins by performing an exploratory analysis of the data, then proceeds to an examination of the principal components to reduce dimensionality. It concludes with a cluster analysis to enhance the visualisation of different regions. The results are in conformity with the scientific literature but also indicate specificities for different regions or indicators. While most studies concentrate on examining the effects of this phenomenon on just a couple of European countries, the present research extensively analyses all regions across the continent. Furthermore, the study spans a prolonged period from 2018 to 2022, covering the period preceding the pandemic, the crisis itself, and the aftermath. The final contribution regards the methodology used, which considers both approaches utilised in the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature has theorized about the importance of skill formation systems for labor market outcomes. Focusing on twenty two European countries, this paper establishes that countries differ in the strength of the pathways that connect educational credentials to the occupational structure. Pathway strength matters for the quality of occupational matching, for employment and earnings, and for the earnings gap between well matched and less well-matched workers. Systematic country differences matter most clearly in their implications for the average strength of linkage between educational credentials and the occupational structure. The strength of the association between local linkage strength and labor market outcomes may also vary by country or across the various country clusters that have been identified in the institutional literature. However, the considerable within-country heterogeneity in the cross-country rankings of individual pathways implies that one needs to look within countries to understand pathway structure and its connection with career progression and labor market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progressive population ageing observed in Western countries determines a growing need for long-term care for older people. At the same time, migrants and refugees often have integration difficulties in regards to the hosting country society and labour market, with one reason being the lack of EU recognition of the educational degrees obtained in their native country. Creating educational opportunities in elderly care for migrants may facilitate their social inclusion, increase their employability, and constitute a response to the growing labor demand. The HERO project moved in this direction by planning, designing, and carrying out an original training curriculum targeted to migrants and refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries, piloted in four Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Portugal). The impact of the training on migrants and refugees' quality of life was assessed through the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, while social inclusion was assessed through semistructured interviews and participant observation carried out during the internship in elderly care facilities. Eighty-two migrants (70.7 percent women) were involved in the study. The results showed that despite the fact that the training did not have an impact on the trainees' quality of life, it was associated with social inclusion. Four ideal types of migrant learners were drawn: "ex-professional trainees," "fall-back trainees," "care-oriented trainees," and "nonprofessional care workers," based on which as many possible educational pathways were drawn to optimise the trainees' learning process. The study results shaped the formulation of suggestions on migrants' education in elderly care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine how the adoption of digital technologies affects the business competitiveness of countries in Latin American and European countries. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a structural model based on factors representing the pillars of the Global Competitiveness Index: financial system, adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT), skills, labor market, product market, macroeconomic stability, business dynamism and gross domestic product (GDP) purchasing power parity (PPP) as a percentage of the total world value. The authors considered 17 Latin American and 28 European countries. The model was analyzed by partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Findings: ICT adoption in Latin American countries is a strong predictor of business dynamism (66% of the variance), skills (81% of the variance), product market (75% of the variance), labor market (42% of the variance) and financial system (49% of the variance). Similarly, ICT adoption in European countries is a strong predictor of business dynamism (35.6% of the variance), skills (72.2% of the variance), product market (51.6% of the variance), labor market (81.7% of the variance, but with a negative path coefficient) and financial system (38% of the variance). Practical implications: Latin American countries should create policies to build skills to increase ICT adoption, and improve business and labor market dynamism. A theoretical implication is that the authors propose two structural models based on the GCI that best explains competitiveness in Europe and Latin America. Originality/value: Using GCI data, the authors present empirical evidence on the predictors of competitiveness across 17 Latin American and 28 European countries with a special focus on the adoption of digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activation measures have assumed a prominent role within policy perspectives aimed at increasing labour market participation to support welfare sustainability. Most comparative studies on active labour market policies (ALMPs) have been conducted at the national level, although several scholars recently stressed the need to consider more carefully the territorial dimension of social policies. This article addresses this research gap by providing quantitative estimates of the territorial effect of national ALMPs provision on youth employment in European regions. We find that regional contextual traits, which can present a variety of configurations, play a significant role in moderating the effects of ALMPs. Divergent outcomes per type and level of education also highlight the complexity of the landscape for ALMPs' design and implementation. Our analysis helps identify the institutional and contextual conditions that require evaluation when designing and implementing policies targeting young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the scientific literature and debate on social investment, public childcare provision plays a pivotal role. At the same time, critics have argued that social investment is often unable to reduce social inequalities and, to the contrary, tends to reproduce them (the so-called 'Matthew effect'). The article focuses on a specific facet of social investment policies: their capacity to support mothers' employment and its effect on social inequality, by investigating empirically to what extent an expansion of public childcare can help to increase women's labour market participation and how this eventual support is homogenously distributed among different mothers' profiles. To give a convincing answer to such a question requires careful attention to methodology, in order to avoid drawing the wrong conclusions. Whereas existing research has predominately focused on cross-national variation and has often been static in nature, the present study assesses the effects of public childcare expansion on women's labour market participation and employment by examining region-specific within-variation over time of public childcare coverage. The study relies on data from the European Social Survey (2002–2018) that were integrated with an original collection of regional-level information on public childcare. It finds a positive association between increases in public childcare coverage and mothers' labour market participation. Furthermore, it shows that public childcare helps to fight social inequalities among households with young children. Low-educated mothers are the ones who profit most from an increase in public childcare, and positive employment effects are most pronounced at lower levels of childcare coverage. Therefore, this contribution highlights the importance of public childcare policies as an equalizer in society, especially in contexts in which an intervention is most needed, because expanding childcare fosters mothers' labour market participation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]