DAILY NEWS
Brussels, 13 October 2026
Job quality is a priority in the EU, according to annual Commission report
The quality of jobs in the EU has improved over the past decade, according to the 2026 European Employment and Social Outlook, published today. The report points to progress in three areas: pay, job security, and working time. It shows that better-quality jobs help build a strong, productive and competitive economy.
The report finds that better-quality jobs can raise productivity by improving motivation, reducing staff turnover, encouraging skills development and supporting better work organisation.
The report also looks at current challenges, including slowing employment growth, weak productivity growth, and pressure on household incomes from high energy prices. It highlights that labour shortages are often more pronounced in poorer-quality jobs, showing that improving job quality can help attract and retain workers where they are most needed. In turn, higher productivity can help improve wages and working conditions.
Later this year, the Commission will present the Quality Jobs Act, following the second-phase consultation of EU social partners.
Job quality still varies across countries, sectors and occupations
Job quality differs between sectors. It is higher in sectors of strategic and economic importance to the EU, in particular manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service sectors. On the other hand, labour shortage occupations often involve more atypical hours, less secure jobs and lower pay.
The report shows that better-quality jobs are more common in information and communication, finance and insurance, public administration, and professional, scientific and technical activities. Poorer-quality jobs are more often found in accommodation and food services, administrative and support services, and some lower-skilled service jobs. In addition, differences remain across Member States, with some countries recording deteriorations in two or more job quality indicators over the past decade even as the overall EU trend remained positive.
Wages and productivity go hand in hand
The report shows that wages can keep rising only if companies become more productive. At the same time, higher wages, especially minimum wages, can encourage companies to invest and innovate rather than compete on low labour costs.
Since the EU Minimum Wages Directive was adopted, minimum wages have increased, especially in Member States with lower wage levels and more minimum-wage earners.
Technology and AI are changing work
AI can boost productivity and job quality by helping workers focus on more valuable tasks and develop new skills. But its effects will depend on how it is introduced and governed. The report highlights that AI can put pressure on labour demand in some entry-level and routine jobs, and may affect wages and working conditions. This makes worker representation, skills policies and social dialogue increasingly important.
Emerging research also suggests that greater reliance on automated tools could weaken critical thinking, reduce learning by doing, and increase the need for human supervision. Less experienced workers often see the biggest immediate productivity gains by using AI. However, they may also be less able to spot errors, potentially widening skills gaps.
Employment and social trends
As required by the Treaty, the report also looks at broader employment and social trends in the EU. It shows that the EU labour market has remained resilient. In 2025, the employment rate reached 76.1%, while unemployment stayed at a historic low of 6%.
For 2026, the report draws on Commission analysis showing that the energy shock linked to the conflict in the Middle East is likely to slow employment growth but not stop it. Around 440,000 fewer jobs are expected to be created in 2026. Even so, the outlook points to slower hiring rather than a sharp downturn, as employers are expected to keep their workers. In 2026, real wages are 1.4% above their pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, having recovered losses experienced in 2022 and 2023 in most Member States.
Background
The 2026 European Employment and Social Outlook builds on the Employment Committee's Job Quality Framework, which defines the different dimensions of job quality. It shows why job quality should be central to Europe's response to long-term economic change, low productivity growth, ageing, labour shortages, and the green and digital transitions.
For more information
Webpage on 2026 European Employment and Social Outlook
Quote(s)
Europe’s labour market remains strong. Wages are back to pre-pandemic levels. But employment growth is slowing, poverty reduction is not yet matching our ambition, and high energy prices are weighing especially on lower-income households. We are committed to creating more high-quality jobs across the EU. With the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act, we want to make sure work is available, fair, safe and rewarding for everyone.
Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness
European Centre for Democratic Resilience extends cooperation to enlargement partners
Today, the European Centre for Democratic Resilience takes a further step by extending its cooperation activities on democratic resilience to candidate countries and potential candidates. This broadens the Centre's practical cooperation beyond the EU borders, integrating opportunities to share expertise, build joint capabilities and work together on common challenges, as envisaged under the European Democracy Shield.
In the margins of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg, Ministers from Member States discussed avenues for collaboration with their counterparts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine, as well as Kosovo. At the Member States' invitation, enlargement partners will now be able to participate in several ongoing joint projects, including tabletop crisis management exercises, and developing common concepts and methodologies to detect foreign information manipulation and interference. Other projects include methods for measuring democratic resilience, and supporting the safety of democratic life through dedicated trainings on the protection of journalists, civil society organisations, fact-checkers and politicians.
The Centre was officially launched on 24 February 2026 at the General Affairs Council. The Centre is already delivering concrete projects with Member States, such as the Train the trainers capacity building programme. More information is available on the Centre's website.
(For more information: Markus Lammert – Tel.: +32 2 296 75 33; Cristina Torres Castillo – Tel.: +32 2 299 06 79)
Commissioner Šefčovič to discuss future of EU trade policy at 2026 Trade Policy Day
Trade Policy Day, one of the Commission's annual flagship events, will bring today together stakeholders from across Europe to discuss the evolution of trade policy. This year's event – dubbed ‘Navigating Instability: EU Trade Policy in a Polarised World' – will explore the role of our trade policy in a changing global economy, looking at how the EU can remain open and engaged internationally, while strengthening its economic resilience and competitiveness and working with partners to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.
Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič will highlight trade policy as one of the EU's great success stories and structural strengths, with some 700-thousand EU companies exporting, supporting over 30 million European jobs. In this context, the event will also highlight the unprecedented success of 2026 in delivering new trade agreements, including those concluded or signed with Mercosur, India, Australia, Mexico and the Philippines.
High-level participants include Bernd Lange, Chair of the Committee on International Trade at the European Parliament, and John Hannaford, Personal Representative of the Canadian Prime Minister to the European Union.
The full list of speakers and complete programme are available on the Trade Policy Day website.
(For more information: Olof Gill - Tel.: +32 2 296 59 66; Marta Perez-Cejuela Romero - Tel.: +32 2 296 37 70)
Tentative agendas for forthcoming Commission meetings
Note that these items can be subject to changes.
Upcoming events of the European Commission
Eurostat press releases
Calendar items of the President and Commissioners
Individual calendars of the President and Commissioners
EU Week of Regions and Cities convenes 5,000 participants to discuss the future of cohesion policy
The 24th European Week of Regions and Cities opens today in Brussels, bringing together nearly 5,000 participants from across Europe under the motto 'Strong Regions, Strong Europe'.
Convened by the European Commission and hosted by Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, in partnership with the European Committee of the Regions, the three-day event is bringing together local and regional authorities, policymakers, project promoters and practitioners, researchers and journalists to discuss the future of Europe's regions and cities.
This year's opening ceremony will feature high-level speakers, including European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola, European Council President, António Costa, and the President of the European Committee of the Regions, Kata Tüttő.
Participants from all over Europe will exchange views on the role of EU Cohesion Policy in strengthening regional development, supporting the 'Right to Stay' for every EU citizen in the place they call home, and boosting the Union's competitiveness.
Supporting the ‘Right to Stay'
Many regions across Europe are facing the challenge of population loss, due to natural population decline or people moving away. Over the past two decades, one in three Europeans – a total of 149 million people – have lived in a region that has lost population. Supporting the ‘Right to Stay' means creating the conditions for people and communities to prosper where they live, with access to economic opportunities, quality public services, education and skills, and the infrastructure they need, including good transport and digital connectivity.
Discussions during the week, including a high-level session with Executive Vice-President Fitto on Tuesday, and a series of partner sessions on the same day will feed into the preparation of a strategy on the 'Right to Stay' planned for adoption in early 2027. It will follow the Commission's territorial strategies, which address the specific needs and challenges of different types of territories including cities, the eastern regions bordering Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, islands and coastal communities and the outermost regions.
Cohesion and competitiveness, two sides of the same coin
On Wednesday, discussions will focus on how cohesion policy can help build a more competitive Europe. In the 2021-2027 programming period, €220 billion in cohesion funds are already contributing to the priorities of the Competitiveness Compass. The recent mid-term review of cohesion policy also showed how regions and Member States are adapting investments to Europe's emerging priorities. In total, regions and Member States voluntarily reallocated €34.6 billion to areas such as competitiveness, housing, defence, water and energy resilience. Of this amount, €15.2 billion was redirected specifically to strengthening Europe's competitiveness, including by providing vital support for technologies that are essential for Europe's future.
Showcasing results and recognising excellence
The European Week of Regions and Cities is also an opportunity to highlight concrete results on the ground and recognise the people behind projects that are making Europe more cohesive.
This year, a record number of 274 applications have been submitted for the REGIOSTARS Awards, which celebrate the best projects supported by cohesion policy. 25 finalist projects have been selected and will be presented during the Week. The winners will be announced by the Commission at the REGIOSTARS Awards ceremony on Wednesday 14 October at 19:00, which can also be followed via web stream.
The Commission will also award the Megalizzi-Niedzielski Prize to three talented young aspiring journalists. The prize honours the memory of Antonio Megalizzi and Bartek Niedzielski, two young journalists who lost their lives in the terrorist attack in Strasbourg in December 2018. The ceremony can be followed via web stream on the same day at 17:30.
24th European Week of Regions and Cities
Official Opening of the European Week of Regions and Cities
REGIOSTARS Awards
Megalizzi-Niedzielski Prize
Cohesion policy 2021-2027
Mid-term-review of cohesion policy
Europe is a great place to live, work and build a future. But we are also living through a period of profound change, facing economic pressures, global uncertainty, demographic change and the need to strengthen our competitiveness. Strong regions are essential to responding to these challenges, addressing citizens’ concerns and creating the conditions for people and businesses to thrive. The European Week of Regions and Cities brings together experience, expertise and political perspectives from across the EU. It gives regions a strong voice in shaping Europe’s future. Because strong regions are essential to a strong Europe.
Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms