In the 2021 edition of the Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) review, the EC shows how Europe stayed resilient during these difficult times.
Every year, the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) publishes the ESDE review, which provides a thorough economic analysis of employment and social trends in Europe. It takes into account issues such as long-term unemployment, mobility and migration, people and skills and modernising social protection schemes. The report for 2021 was unique in itself, as it took into consideration the social impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The year 2020 marked one of the biggest drops in GDP of the last decade, however the increase in unemployment was less high than during the 2008 economic crisis. Still, the health measures adopted to save lives during the pandemic had grave effects on specific economic sectors (such as tourism and culture), on specific regions (that rely heavily on the aforementioned sectors) and young people. However, Europe was and is at the forefront of building recovery and resilience plans to help society move forward from these dire times.
The pandemic has accentuated the need to modernise society, starting from the people. Tied to skills and employment, the EU has enacted a number of initiatives to help shift society towards a more climate-neutral, digital, and job rich Europe. These include the European Skills Agenda; the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan; the Pact for Skills; the Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP); the European Child Guarantee; and the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To help implement these initiatives in Member States and beyond, funding tools, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and the Just Transition Fund are essential.
One of the takeaways from the report is how the reactions of countries and regions to the COVID-19 crisis are linked to the digital and green transitions. The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on digitalisation in the workplace, changing the manner and location of employment. Digital skills intensity of the labour market differs greatly between Member States. Sweden shows the highest percentage, rated 20% more than the average level of the EU23 countries who were taken into consideration for the study. On the other side, Romania and Latvia have the lowest digital skills. Member States with high intensity of digital skills usually have the highest GDP per capita. Consequently, these countries registered lower rates of unemployment in 2020. Thus digitalisation remains one of the main factors of economic growth, this explains why in the national RRF plans, every country must dedicate 20% of the fund to fostering the digital transition with specific projects and initiatives. Related to this, the pandemic also accentuated educational inequalities due to remote teaching. According to the study, this might negatively affect the future earnings of lower income students, one of the reasons being that social workers had more difficulties contacting and helping them directly. In general, it seems like the long-term consequences of the crisis are still difficult to calculate.
Under the recently launched Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, there has already been a meeting of the EU ministers for employment and social affairs on 8-9 July 2021. Here, the ministers discussed how to make the European labour market more resilient and inclusive. The main topics discussed were compliant with the results obtained in the ESDE report. Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, reminded the importance of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and how resilience in employment can be achieved by investing in people and providing adequate support services in the labour market. The programme of the Slovenian Presidency shows that they will be paying special attention to the effects of demographic changes on the labour market and will prepare Council conclusions on promoting quality work for all generations. Related to the digital transition, the Presidency will focus on the development of digitalisation and artificial intelligence and ethics in educational processes.