The project SkiLMeeT (Skills for labour markets in the digital and green transition) has three main objectives: 1) generate data and indicators which quantify the extent of labour and skills shortages and mismatch in Europe; 2) explore the drivers of these gaps and shortages, with a focus on the digital and green transitions; 3) analyse and identify pathways to reduce skill gaps and shortages. SkiLMeeT advances the knowledge how the work programme’s main goals can be achieved: to equip the workforce with the demanded skills, to encourage successfully the necessary reskilling and upskilling of the workforce and ultimately to realise the full potential of the digital and green transitions for Europe as a whole. To achieve these aims, SkiLMeeT builds on an inter- and transdisciplinary approach bringing together quantitative and qualitative methods. The combination of in-depth case studies and broad analyses of European economies using a rich variety of data sources ranging from survey and administrative data to big data provides highly valuable complementary insights into the nature of shortages, their drivers and pathways out. The indicators created are transparent and easily accessible. The analyses of drivers and pathways are conducted both for all European countries and for particularly relevant example countries. To validate the quantitative analyses, to explore mechanisms and to identify particularly promising pathways, we engage in extensive consultations and set up feedback loops with the research community, especially with relevant international and national research initiatives, and with stakeholders. The stakeholder consultations help to develop concrete policy proposals aimed at a thriving economy and an inclusive society. To maximise SkilMeeT’s impact, we disseminate the project’s indicators and insights, as well as concrete policy proposals to policymakers, stakeholders and the public.

Technological transformations, globalisation and demographic changes are the three key mega-trends posing socio-economic challenges and opportunities for the EU. UNTANGLED aims to fill knowledge gaps about these trends by pursuing three main goals: (1) to provide detailed analyses at the macro-, regional-, sectoral-, and micro-level concerning the effects of these trends on labour market outcomes and inequality, and their winners and losers; (2) to develop comprehensive, model-based scenarios of the impacts of these trends in the next decades, overall and for various subpopulations, sectors and regions; (3) to develop policy recommendations fostering shared prosperity. UNTANGLED contributes to the work programme’s goal of promoting inclusive and evidence-based policy and informed public debates. In measuring effects, we disentangle the joint impacts of the trends on the changing demand of skills, employability, wage and income inequality, and mobility and migration patterns. We pay attention to effects by gender, age, skill level, and firm type. We use an interdisciplinary approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods and adopts a cross-country perspective, covering the entire EU and accounting for developments in other continents. This helps to project the impact of shocks on global value chains. Our scenarios are firmly based on analytical results and created with two complementary models to provide robust results at the country-, sector- and regional-level. To develop assumptions and ensure relevance of scenarios, we engage in extensive consultations and set up feedback loops with stakeholders, which complement and validate the economic and institutional analyses. These stakeholder consultations help to develop concrete policy proposals aimed at shared prosperity. We deliver research papers and policy briefs. To maximise UNTANGLED’s impact, we disseminate the lessons learned and policy proposals to policy-makers, stakeholders and the public.

Four megatrends - technological transformations, globalisation, climate warming and demographic changes - reshape labour markets, redefine opportunities and risks, and pose new challenges for welfare states in the EU. WeLaR aims to fill knowledge gaps about these processes by pursuing two main goals: (i) provide a comprehensive and comparative diagnosis of the effects on megatrends on labour market risks and challenges for welfare states; (ii) develop policy recommendations to adapt welfare states. WeLaR contributes to the destination’s goal of promoting inclusive growth, fair distribution of its productivity gains, and boosting economic and social resilience. In measuring effects, we account for interactions between megatrends, and disentangle their impacts of on labour supply, labour demand, and labour market allocations, which are also shaped by institutions. We pay particular attention to groups that often face higher labour market risks: women, young workers, people in atypical jobs or in in-work poverty. In developing policy proposals, we combine simulations with lessons from recent welfare state interventions and social innovation experiments, while accounting for political economy of reforms. We use an interdisciplinary approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods and adopts a cross-country perspective, covering the entire EU, which allows us to understand the role of country-specific institutional settings for the effects of megatrends and challenges for welfare states. To ensure relevance of policy ideas, we engage in extensive consultations and set up feedback loops with stakeholders, which complement and validate the quantitative and qualitative studies. These stakeholder consultations help to develop concrete policy proposals aimed at resilient, inclusive growth. We deliver research papers and policy briefs. To maximise WeLaR’s impact, we disseminate the lessons learned and policy proposals to policy-makers, stakeholders and the public.