Employment and labour markets

During 2025, Eurofound continues to collect relevant evidence concerning labour market trends in the EU and its Member States by means of the European Jobs Monitor (EJM), the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) and the platform economy repository.

The findings of several research projects are due to be finalised in 2025:

• assessing the gender pay gap and the link to the educational gender gap
• comparing jobs in terms of their task requirements, highlighting the implications for job mobility and employment reallocation in the labour market
• company adaptation and restructuring practices in relation to the twin transition and changing work arrangements

Research commences on a number of other topics.

• Sectors in focus in the twin transition: Looking at sectors, initially ICT, where the mega-drivers are expected to create large-scale changes or where significant policy responses to the mega-drivers will affect the EU economy and society
• Caring for care services: Analysis of the employment shifts in the care sectors
• New forms of work: Analysis of labour market trends and working conditions to provide evidence on the employment arrangements and forms of work that are emerging in the context of the ongoing transformation of the European labour market
• Labour market dynamics: Looking at the impact of minimum wage policies on low-paid jobs from a comparative perspective, complementing Eurofound’s ongoing monitoring of minimum wage developments in Europe
• Telework: Examining the impact on labour market access and working conditions, focusing on identifying and assessing the enabling factors for and barriers to remote work in general and for certain groups of workers in particular

Tina Weber, Senior Research Manager, Employment Unit

2025 marks the first year of the five-year period of the EU policy and legislative cycle for 2025–2029. Labour market policies and industrial policy initiatives will be informed by Eurofound’s evidence on structural change in the labour market, including knowledge on the potential upgrading or polarisation of jobs, on how task requirements in jobs are changing, and on whether shifts in the employment structure are accelerating or slowing.

Research focusing on sectors will help with understanding the impact of the progress to meet the EU’s carbon-neutrality objectives, the adaptation to new technologies and the possible changes that will occur as a result of the changes to global value chains.

Investigating new forms of work will help in assessing their prevalence over time, and how the opportunities or risks they create affect the employment and labour market prospects of the people involved.

The assessment of evidence on the impact of minimum wages on employment will provide insights on the impact of the Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. The EU’s initiatives in the area of gender equality, such as the Directive on Pay Transparency, will be informed by research on the determinants of gender differences in wages.