European Employment Barometer updated with new data

The European Employment Barometer, developed jointly by the World Employment Confederation and Staffing Industry Analysts, provides data on total employment, temporary employment, agency work and freelance work. It is regularly updated with data from Eurostat and data provided by WEC members.

For the latest statistics on agency work sector developments around the world, be sure to also look at the regularly updated statistical brief, published by  the WEC, containing sector statistics up until October 2020. Activity in the agency work sector tends to be an early warning indicator of where the overall economy is heading, and the current crisis showcases this once again.

Key labour market and agency work sector insights from the European Employment Barometer Q2 2020 update:

• Employment in the EU27 was down by 2.8% in Q2 2020 compared to Q4 2019, before the pandemic struck. Compared to Q2 2019, employment was down 2.4%
• Part-time employment across the EU27 as a share of total employment stood at 18.1% in Q2 2020, down from 18.6% in the previous quarter and down from 18.4% one year before
• Temporary employment in the EU27 saw a massive decline in Q2 2020, with a decrease of 16.7% compared to Q2 2019. As a share of total employment, temporary contracts were down to 12.9%, from 15.2% in the same quarter of 2019.
• Hours worked by agency workers in Europe dropped sharply during the pandemic, down by 36.1% in Q2 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.
• The most impacted countries in terms of agency work hours in Q2 2020 were France (-49.1%), Poland (-40%), Belgium (-32.8%) and Spain (-32.5%).