Browse Analytical Highlights

Cedefop skills forecasts offers quantitative projections of the future trends in employment by sector of economic activity and occupational group. Future trends on the level of education of the population and the labour force are also estimated. Cedefop’s forecasts use harmonised international da...

Between 2015 and 2025, more than 97 million job openings will need to be filled in EU-28. 93% of these will be due to replacement demand.

There are concerns that Europe has a skill mismatch problem: employers struggle to recruit people with the skills they need while unemployment levels remain relatively high following the economic crisis.

Studies of the changing demand for skills over the past two decades, including Cedefop forecasts, show a ‘skills polarisation’: demand for medium-skilled intermediate occupations is falling, while demand in both high-skilled and low-skilled occupations is rising - although there are important var...

Skills shortages in certain sectors and occupations create recruitment difficulties for employers, while a substantial proportion of the EU work force are not in jobs that match their skills or qualifications.

Employment growth will be driven by service sectors and expansion in technical, professional and managerial jobs.