posted 26th August 2024
2023 saw record-low unemployment rates in the EU - as low as 6.1% at the beginning of the year and ultimately hitting 5.9% by the end - far lower than the double digit rates of the previous decade. At a regional level, Germany (3.2%) and Czechia (2.4%) enjoyed some of the lowest rates, whilst Spain (12%) and Greece (9.6%) saw higher numbers, although again lower still than the decade before.
The UK, too, saw incredibly low unemployment rates throughout the year, opening 2023 at 4.5% and closing it at just above 4%.
Job vacancies continued to grow, however, keeping skilled workers in-demand. Germany and the UK saw the largest number of job vacancies in 2023, with IT and healthcare the two industries most in need of workers in both regions. Across the entirety of the EU, however, many countries saw elevated job vacancies, predominantly in the technology and sales sectors. In technology, the most in-demand jobs in 2023 were software developers and the most in-demand skills include machine learning and research development, likely in connection with an ever-growing adoption by businesses of AI tools.
Also impacting the EU market is the EU Directive 2023/970, published in May 2023, which aims to address pay transparency and equality. This directive, in an effort towards inclusion, covers all workers, including part-time, fixed-term, and temporary workers. It stipulates that pay transparency and allowing for salary or rate comparisons can drive pay equality. It places the onus on organisations to create hypothetical peers for its employees, to allow equity evaluations, as well as to create pay structures across the entire workforce. These pay structures should lead to all workers working equal jobs to be paid equally, regardless of gender, age or protected classification.
Across 2024, we have so far seen similar trends across the labour market, with IT and healthcare both continuing to be the main industries struggling with talent pool sizes.
