In 2021, the first significant warning about workforce shortages was sounded. Amidst COVID turmoil, the entire European continent realised that worker shortages were looming and imminent. Per a study by the European Center for Global Development, the EU (and Europe) will be short approximately 44 million workers by 2025, without new, increased immigration plans.
Big (unemployment) in Japan
Now, the situation in Europe isn’t quite as severe as it is projected to be in Japan. There, the population of the working-age group in 2050 is expected to be only 68% of its 2020 level. But the underlying issues are the same. This is due to two main factors: Europeans are generally living longer and having fewer children. This strains welfare systems and the social safety net, slowing economic growth and affecting prosperity
“If people in Europe want some sense of what the next thirty years could look like, they might want to study Japan’s recent past.”
“If people in Europe want some sense of what the next thirty years could look like, they might want to study Japan’s recent past”, researchers Charles Kenny and George Yang say. “Older readers may remember when, based on decades of phenomenal growth, the country was viewed in the US as the next cold war adversary after the Soviet Union. Poised to become the world’s largest economy, buying up iconic American brands and starring as the sinister unstoppable force in a Michael Crichton thriller. But things didn’t go according to plan: as the country aged, miracle growth rates waned.”
Record-setting number of immigrants
So much for the bad news. With the newly-released 2022 migration statistics, there may be a little optimism infused into European labour markets. The continent has set a new record with 5.1 million people immigrating to the EU from non-EU countries in 2022. It marks a significant increase of approximately 117% (2.7 million) from 2021. Compared to its population size, Malta had the highest immigration rate in 2022 with 66 immigrants for every 1,000 people, coming from both EU and non-EU countries.
With the newly-released 2022 migration statistics, there may be a little optimism infused into European labour markets.
Luxembourg was next with 48, and Estonia followed with 37 immigrants per 1,000 residents. On the other hand, Slovakia had the lowest immigration rate, with only 1 immigrant per 1,000 people. Bulgaria and France each had 6 immigrants per 1,000 residents, coming after Slovakia. In absolute terms, the largest numbers of foreign-born residents from other EU countries and non-EU countries were registered in Germany (16.5 million people), France (8.9 million) and Spain (8.2 million).
Germany’s heading in the right direction
Considering the job vacancy rates across the continent, these levels of immigration are much needed. The percentage of unfilled positions in the workforce in countries like Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and Germany all lie at around 4%. Germany has a total of 1.7 million open job vacancies. The Netherlands has around 413 thousand open jobs — and Austria and Belgium, both have roughly 200 thousand open vacancies.
Germany went from approximately 875 thousand in 2021 to a total surpassing 2 million in 2022, an increase of 132%
When we look closely at those countries’ total immigration rates, each of them drastically improved its totals compared to a year earlier. Germany went from approximately 875 thousand in 2021 to a total surpassing 2 million in 2022, an increase of 132%. Austria scored a growth percentage rate of 70%, while The Netherlands saw the migration increase by 52%. Belgium scored 49%. Of the entire continent, Czechia saw its migration totals quadruple (400%). The simple explanation is that it’s down to Ukrainian refugees. They fled the war after Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the beginning of 2022.
The EU Talent Pool
Kenny and Yang point to increased immigration, particularly from Africa, as a solution to Europe’s worker shortage. While some country’s political parties still want to reduce the number of foreign workers taking up jobs — the EU Commission proposed a EU Talent Pool to facilitate the recruitment of jobseekers from non-EU countries in EU-wide shortage occupations.
The platform, combined with the surge in migration, comes at a pivotal moment for the EU.
It is the first EU platform of its type to help employers access a wider pool of skills and talent. If anything, it aims to make international recruitment easier and faster. The platform, combined with the surge in migration, comes at a pivotal moment for the EU, against the backdrop of an ageing population and the evolving needs of the European labour market.
Source picture: isado on flickr
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