European Commission warns: hundreds of thousands of EU jobs at risk

The European Commission plans to assess for the first time whether member states are investing adequately in the workforce needed to meet Europe's economic and industrial objectives. The analysis highlights the risk that hundreds of thousands of job vacancies will lack qualified workers to fill them. This represents an unprecedented step for the EU in evaluating employment policy.

The European Commission plans to assess for the first time whether EU member states are investing sufficiently in human capital development to ensure a workforce that supports European industrial and economic ambitions. The warning affects hundreds of thousands of jobs across the entire European Union.

Unprecedented assessment

Until now, Brussels has never evaluated member states' labour force investments on such a scale in the context of European competitiveness. This new approach means that countries will need to account for expectations set at EU level regarding how much they invest in workforce training and development.

The analysis stems from Europe's growing concerns about its economic competitiveness — particularly given pressure from the US and China, and the need to implement the green and digital transitions. Implementing these major transformations requires an enormous skilled workforce, which is currently scarce in many sectors.

Labour shortage threatens ambitions

If member states fail to meet growing demand for specialists in industry, technology and renewable energy, Europe risks falling further behind and losing some manufacturing capacity to other parts of the world. This in turn threatens the survival of tens of thousands of existing jobs.

The results of the European Commission's assessment should emerge in the coming months and may also influence what policy measures countries are expected to implement going forward.