Assessment of the Similarity of the Situation in the EU Labour Markets and Their Changes in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of the study is to assess the similarity of the situation in the EU labour markets and their evolution using selected indicators in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The benchmark are the countries that most closely meet the Sustainable Development Goals related to the labour market. We use quarterly data from Eurostat presenting the basic indicators of the labour market: unemployment, employment, and activity rates. We analyse all indicators for the total population, young people, and people aged 55+. We assess the similarity of the situation using the TOPSIS method and similarity of changes by means of the Dynamic Time Warping. We obtain homogeneous groups of countries due to similarity of time series using hierarchical clustering. We conduct the analysis in two periods: the years 2018 and 2019 (pre-pandemic period) and from the beginning of 2020 to the present (pandemic period). The composition of the clusters in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods is different. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the situation in the labour market can be noted. This is a result of different degree of development of labour markets, which had an impact on coping with the effects of the crisis caused by the pandemic.

Evaluating the Effects of COVID-19 and Vaccination on Employment Behaviour: A Panel Data Analysis Acrossthe World

“…As a result, the obtained data supports the conclusions of other studies. The benchmarking conducted for the European Union's labour market [42] before and during COVID-19 noted the same negative effect. For example, in Sweden, Belgium, Canada, the United States, and Chile, COVID-19 has been shown to have a negative impact on non-standard work hours, and [44,45] identified a job loss in the aviation industry along a similar line.…”

“…Another dimension of employment fluctuation in the short term is that employment behaviour might receive many shocks that have different origins, such as economic [30,31], social [32], political [33], technological [34], and input cost shocks [35,36], as well as health shocks related to viral epidemics, e.g., the current crisis caused by COVID-19 [1, [37][38][39][40]. As they take lessons from ancient employment shocks during previous recessionary periods [41], researchers are interested in examining the influence of COVID-19 on employment by benchmarking the periods before the pandemic vs. the era ofCOVID-19 [42], as they have learned from earlier recessionary periods [41]. In fact, [43] emphasizes the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on flexible work relationships and careers to examine how they might be affected by it, its recurring consequences, and its impact on flexible employment relationships.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on labour force and recovery peculiarities in selected countries of Europe

“…Recovery from the virus occurs in different ways and at different times in the market (Enfield, 2021). In post-Covid Europe, the situation varies from country to country due to different economic and social developments (Bieszk-Stolorz & Dmytrów, 2022). Research analyzing the labour market in the aftermath of the pandemic shows that companies are experiencing a downward trend in supply and a shortage of highly qualified workers.…”

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“…Therefore, there is no doubt that crises of all kinds, especially those of a global nature, pose a threat to the achievement of SDGs. Preliminary research on the EU labour market (SDG 8.5, SDG 8.6) from the years 2018-2021 showed that the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the similarities of the labour markets in the EU countries, but rather influenced the similarities of changes in those markets (Bieszk-Stolorz & Dmytrów, 2022).…”