AROUND one million job vacancies throughout the EU were advertised yesterday on a new job search website, unveiled as part of the launch of the European Year of Workers’ Mobility. The website and the year were launched by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Commissioner Vladimír Špidla and Austrian Minister for Economy and Employment Martin Bartenstein in Brussels.
The year aims to raise awareness and increase understanding of the benefits of working in a new country and/or occupation, as well as highlighting how the EU can help workers move.
Only around two per cent of Europeans live in an EU country other than their country of origin, a percentage largely unchanged for the last 30 years. And they are largely staying in their jobs, too. Average job duration is 10.6 years in the EU. In the US, it is 6.5.
As the EU strives for more growth and jobs, helping workers to move to new countries/sectors has become even more important: it gives workers new skills and experience, benefiting both them and their employers in today’s global economy.
Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, highlighted why mobility was so important.
“Free movement is a fundamental right in the EU. We should make as full use of it as we can. It can provide opportunities to learn, to work and to re-skill. Workers need new skills and Europe needs adaptable workers. So Europe needs to get on the move,” he said.
Yesterday’s conference saw the launch of the new EURES job vacancies website, (http://europa.eu.int/eures/home.jsp?lang=en) which will advertise around one million vacancies in the EU in 28 countries throughout Europe. The site will publish all the job openings advertised by public employment services throughout the EU and beyond, as well as offering a network of 700 advisors to provide assistance to mobile workers.
The conference, attended by around 450 delegates including politicians, employers and employee representatives, academics and civil society, also analysed mobility’s role in achieving more and better jobs, increasing growth and how to instil a mobility culture.
The year’s ten million euro budget will be dedicated to mobility awareness raising projects and major events, such as a Vienna Mobility conference in June and ‘Job Fair Europe’ in September – which will see job fairs in more than 50 European cities.
Several studies are planned to assess mobility’s impact and to improve statistical data. A European prize will be awarded to the organisation that has contributed the most to worker mobility.
A recent Eurobarometer study indicates that respondents largely recognised that mobility can help job prospects. Results bear this out. The same survey found that while 59 per cent of people who looked for work outside their home region found work within a year, the equivalent who stayed put was just 35 per cent.
Though mobility remains limited, interest in becoming mobile is high among Europeans.
EuropeDirect, the service which answers any question about the EU, reports that around 25 per cent of the questions it receives concern mobility.
n For more information, please visit: http://europa.eu.int/eures/home.jsp?lang=en
