Martens Centre
  • Home
  • About
    • Who we are
    • Team
    • Bodies and Experts
    • Members
  • Publications
  • Events
  • News
  • Blog
  • Contact

Warning: Undefined variable $lock in /home/clients/0aee7ac7fc8ad72a3a23bcc4ca043604/web-martenscenter.eu/wp-content/themes/martensamp/header.php on line 443
back

Publications

Jobs without Frontiers: the Potential of the Single European Labour Market

06 May 2013

The labour market varies very widely across the EU’s member states. While unemployment rates in Greece and Spain have soared above 20 percent in the wake of the financial, economic and sovereign debt crises, other countries such as Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium are struggling to find skilled labour. In theory, this should make it very attractive for job-seekers from the particularly badly-hit regions to migrate to countries where their skills are needed. But despite this, there is little mobility between EU countries. This is illustrated by the fact that there are more Mexicans living in the USA than EU citizens living in another EU country. There is no doubt that the crisis has triggered an increase in the numbers of people migrating between the various EU countries, but if we ignore the movement of citizens from the new EU member states of Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, the number of people migrating as a result of Europe’s economic imbalances remains very low. The proportion of workers in the EU who are citizens of another EU country has significantly increased, but the increase in those countries that are particularly suffering from a shortage of skilled labour is less than the average. So it seems clear that the imbalances between the European labour markets have only had a limited effect on this increase.

ENJOYING THIS CONTENT

Stay up to date by joining our database !

Download the publication

Collaborative

Wido Geis

Konrad Adenauer Foundation

Common project with Konrad Adenauer Foundation

  • EU Member States
  • Jobs
  • Migration

Related publications

Activity Report

IN BRIEF

The 7Ds

The 7Ds

The 7Ds

European View

Policy Briefs

Other

You might also be interested by

Migration Update April-May 2025

Migration Update

28 May 2025

Migration Update October 2024

Migration Update

31 Oct 2024

Belgium’s ‘Not-So-Local’ Elections: National and EU Political Implications

Blog

18 Oct 2024

The Euro’s Weak Heart Threatens its Survival

Blog

17 Oct 2024

Migration Update September 2024

Migration Update

30 Sep 2024

Migration Update July-August 2024

Migration Update

31 Aug 2024

Answering the Central Question Behind the Demographic Challenge in Europe

Blog

28 Aug 2024

2024 Elections – A wind of change to the right? Belgium In Focus

Blog

14 Jun 2024

Germany’s European Election Results: Key Takeaways

Blog

14 Jun 2024

Related events

28 January 2025

Keeping the European Momentum: Pan-European Study on EU Enlargement and Deepening

Martens Centre, rue du Commerce 20, 1000 Brussels

In-House Events

14 November 2023

Hostile Actors and Migration: Responding to Weaponised Population Flows

Renaissance Hotel, Rue du Parnasse 19, 1050 Brussels

In-House Events

Stay updated on Martens Centre Activities, Events and Publications

Copyright © 2025 | Martens Centre ALYS

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Exit mobile version
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information.