Debate: Quality jobs in a competitive future-oriented social market economy
Date: WEDNESDAY, 17 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

Fostering quality jobs in a future-oriented social market economy requires policies, investments and reforms to support innovative and competitive sectors and businesses while improving the working and living conditions of millions of people. A consistent and coordinated approach between economic, industrial and labour market policies is needed at EU and national level, building on the single market as a cornerstone of our social market economy. Over the last few years, the EU labour market has remained remarkably resilient in spite of the energy crisis, the pandemic, Russia's brutal war of aggression in Ukraine and the rising cost of living. And I think the figures have been mentioned by the representative of the President: unemployment has now stabilised at a record low of around 6%; in total, more than 216 million people are employed. However, there are still too many who are left out of the labour market, such as 8 million young people not in employment, education or training. The European economy is facing many challenges. First, the need to strengthen its competitiveness in a world that is less and less a rules-based system, governed by shared values. Second, the need to become future-proof by tackling the demographic, digital and also, most importantly, the green transition, the need to remain a social market economy, which is embedded in the DNA of the European project, which includes also social dialogue and collective bargaining. The roots of this model go back to the creation of the single market under the leadership of the late Jacques Delors, who combined competitiveness and social standards and social cohesion. Today, we see that labour shortages are a major economic challenge, notably driven by skills shortages, hurdles to labour mobility and legal migration, the need to improve activation policies and the poor working conditions of certain jobs and sectors. These challenges hinder fairness, sustainable growth, competitiveness and also innovation. Stakeholders, including social partners, tell us that this is a key concern for them. Europe can only be competitive if it is also social. To fully embrace the transitions and create quality jobs, we need to invest in our human capital, adapt our education and training systems, and reinforce our capacity to upskill and reskill our workforce, protect the health and safety of working people, particularly their mental health. This is why former prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta have been tasked to design a path towards further strengthening our competitiveness and our single market. Social fairness and social cohesion must be at the heart of both endeavours. The pursuit of both is strongly linked to the global race for clean tech. We have key initiatives in place for this, the Green Deal industrial plan that enhances the competitiveness of Europe's net zero industry and is accelerating the transition to climate neutrality. A recent study shows that if we boost investments – private and public – in clean tech, we will not only be able to achieve our goals in reducing CO2 emissions, we also can – or will – create 2.4 million jobs. The same thing applies to the digital economy. The rapid expansion of this economy is another major aspect of our economic future. Artificial intelligence is transforming many jobs. It will allow us to restore a certain number of activities as the security of supply chains becomes more and more important. The consequences of algorithms have to be taken seriously, but the jobs of the future are very much linked to these technological developments. It will have an impact on many sectors. Given our demographic change, Europe's economic and industrial future depends on our capacity to be at the forefront of this technological revolution. This also means that we have to invest in the right skills, as well as in R&D and new companies, start-ups. Under Next Generation EU, the 27 national recovery and resilience plans, funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility, make around EUR 250 billion available for green measures and a similar amount of money also for the digitalisation of our economy. Quality jobs are the fuel of the virtuous dynamic we aim at. Propelling a competitive economy in transition requires quality jobs and strong social protection induces also quality jobs. Quality jobs are based on safe and sound working conditions. We need fair and adequate remuneration as well as career prospects. And, as it has been said by the representative of the Presidency, equality and inclusive labour market equality means first also gender equality. Ending precariousness and ensuring quality jobs are especially important in sectors where working conditions must improve, such as the services, care and industrial sectors. These are the sectors where labour shortages are the most pressing. A firm commitment to quality jobs should also be reflected in the ongoing implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans. In the last five years, we have worked hard towards improving the quality of jobs in line also with the European pillar of social rights action plan; we are helping workers to ensure that work pays with the Minimum Wage Directive; we are supporting fair and decent working conditions with a certain number of measures or directives in the occupational safety and health and the proposed directive on platform work. And again, I refer to the conference the Swedish Presidency had organised on occupational safety and health. We are working on education, training and skills, which are key to quality jobs, with the implementation of the skills agenda of the European education area and the European year of skills you referred to. It is a solid track record and it was only possible thanks also to the commitments of this Parliament.