Labour mobility and cross-border matching – why does it matter?
The free movement of workers is a cornerstone of the single market, complementing the free movement of goods, capital and services. Intra-EU mobility of workers provides opportunities to both people willing to work abroad and to businesses looking to recruit staff. In 2020, on average 6% of the people of working age were EU movers, i.e., EU citizens moving to a Member State other than their citizenship, although this share varies from 0 to 47% across Member States. The share of EU movers increased on average by 19% between 2017 and 2020.
EURES, an instrument set up by EU legislation, supports specifically the matching of workers across borders by increasing transparency on vacancies available in other Member States, EEA countries and Switzerland.
The indicators suggest that EURES is a useful instrument facilitating intra-EU labour mobility. For instance, the large majority of countries (26) use the single coordinated channel to transfer both vacancies and CVs. This is in accordance with Article 17 of the EURES Regulation, which contributes to the matching of job vacancies with CVs across the EU, EEA and Switzerland. For 15 EURES countries, more job vacancies are published on the EURES portal than reported by Eurostat. User satisfaction with the EURES services is also high, scoring between 7 and 10 points (out of a maximum of 10) in 19 countries.
Mobility
The following chart shows the share of people of working age (20-64 years) in each EU country who are nationals of another EU country. This indicator provides, among other information, a snapshot of the extent to which businesses in a Member State rely on EU mobile workers.
Sources: Eurostat population (including international migration) statistics
For further information and data, please consult the Annual Report on Intra-EU Labour Mobility: Publications catalogue - Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion - European Commission (europa.eu).
EURES
To ensure workers are aware of job opportunities available across borders EURES provides:
a Europe-wide jobs and recruitment website
a support network of 1 100 Advisers across Europe
Find out more about EURES.
EURES and the single market – why does it matter?
EURES helps people benefit from one of the EU’s core principles – the free movement of workers. Jobseekers can use it to find work in other European countries and employers can likewise recruit from across the EU.
Performance indicators
| [1] Compliance with the EURES Performance Measurement System | ≥7 | >3 – <7 | ≤3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| [2] IT compliance for the EURES Portal | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| [3] Labour market share | ≥50 | 49 – 21 | ≤20 |
| [4] User satisfaction with EURES services | ≥7 | 4 – 6 | ≤3 |
| [5] Job placements vs labour mobility | >4% | 2 – 4% | <2% |
In 2018, the Performance Measurement System (PMS) was adopted in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/589 and Decision (EU) 2018/170 on uniform detailed specifications for data collection and analysis to monitor and evaluate the functioning of the EURES network. The performance indicators are taken from the PMS, encompassing the contribution from the EURES countries and the European Coordination Office.
Indicator [1]: Compliance with the EURES Performance Measurement System
The chart shows how well each country has complied with the requirements of the EURES Performance Measurement System (Articles 30 and 32 of the EURES Regulation), that is the completeness of the mandatory data provided for all 11 indicators.
Source: PMS data collection 2021
All EURES countries are required to report on the overall functioning and performance of EURES.
This reporting is based on 5 core indicators and 6 network indicators set out in Decision (EU) 2018/170. For each indicator, there is mandatory and optional data to be provided.
The scores in the chart above are based on the mandatory data provided for each of the 11 indicators:
- 1 point – if all the mandatory data was provided for an indicator
- 0.5 points – for providing some of the mandatory data
- 0 points – if no mandatory data was provided
The maximum possible for a country is 11 points.
Thresholds: When a country reaches 7 points (and above), it earns 100 points in the overall performance chart. When it reaches a value between 4 and 6, it earns 75 points. Values equal or lower than 3 means that a country earns 50 points.
Indicator [2]: IT compliance for the EURES portal
This chart shows the extent to which the National Coordination Offices transfer job applications/CVs and job vacancies to the EURES portal via the required channel.
Source: PMS data collection 2021
The National Coordination Offices are required to transfer this data through a single coordinated channel (see Article 17(1) to (7) of the EURES Regulation).
The score in this chart is based on whether just vacancies or just CVs are transferred through the single channel, or both vacancies and CVs:
- 1 point – if a country transfers only vacancies or only CVs
- 2 points – if it transfers both vacancies and CVs
Thresholds: When a country reaches 2 points, it earns 100 points in the overall performance chart. When it reaches a value equal to 1, it earns 75 points. Values equal to 0 mean that a country earns 50 points.
Indicator [3]: Labour market share
The chart shows job vacancies on the EURES portal as a proportion of all job vacancies in the participating countries (whether or not they are made available by EURES Member organisations). The chart gives an indication of how much of the labour market is covered by EURES and the degree to which EURES provides transparency on the labour market (see Article 9(2)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/589).
Thresholds: When a country reaches 50 % or above, it earns 100 points in the overall performance chart. When it reaches a mean that a country earns 50 points.
Note: When a country has a value of 0% of labour market share (e.g., Czechia), it could be either because Eurostat did not report any job vacancy rate for 2021, or because the country did not report any data for PMS Network indicator No. 4c - number of job vacancies made available through the single coordinated channel to the EURES portal. When a country reports a labour market share of more than 100%, it means that the number of job vacancies collected through EURES (numerator) is higher than that reported on Eurostat (denominator).
Source: PMS data collection 2021 and Eurostat
Indicator [4]: User satisfaction with EURES services
The chart shows how satisfied jobseekers and employers are with the services offered by EURES Advisers (information and guidance, recruitment, job search, etc.).
Each participating country is required to collect and share user satisfaction data with the EURES network, including those obtained through surveys. User satisfaction is measured on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest possible score.
Note: Data only available for Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Iceland.
Source: PMS data collection 2021
Thresholds: When a country reaches a value equal or higher than 7, it earns 100 points in the overall performance chart. When it reaches a value equal to or between 4 and 6, it earns 75 points. Values equal and lower than 3 mean that a country earns 50 points.
Indicator [5]: Job placements vs. labour mobility
For each country, the chart shows the ratio between the total number of EURES jobfinders (incoming and outgoing) and the total number of intra-EU movers of working age, i.e., EU citizens moving to a Member State other than their citizenship, (the sum of inflows and outflows of workers moving from/into the country).
Note: Ratios of 0% are due to missing values of incoming jobfinders (e.g., Denmark, Iceland), or missing values on labour mobility (e.g., Liechtenstein).
Sources: European Commission (2021), 2021 Annual Report on intra-EU Labour Mobility, and PMS data collection 2021.
Thresholds: When a country reaches a value higher than 4%, it earns 100 points in the overall performance chart. When it reaches a value equal to or between 4% and 2%, it earns 75 points. Values equal and lower than 2% mean that a country earns 50 points.