Prospects for european labour demand

This paper examines the impact of economic and technological trends upon the level and structure of labour demand. It explores briefly the methods used to model the labour market with special reference to demography and technology and reviews the evidence on recent and prospective changes in labour demand for five countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A distinction is made between the differentforms in which job opportunities arise and the differentareas of economic activity in which they appear. Given the limited horizon of the projections available and the methodological difficulties of long-term forecasting, the focus is on medium-term changes. The findings nonetheless indicate the underlying trends that are likely to continue over the next decade or so.