Europe is facing high levels of unemployment and shortages of skills and the coming decades will see Europe’s workforce shrink due to its ageing population. There is a growing awareness of the need for reskilling, skills development and lifelong learning to better match the supply and demand of Europe’s labour market. 

Recent years have seen labour market responsibilities devolve from the national level to the regional and local levels. We have also seen the creation of new public-private partnerships in employment policies, and a rise of active labour market policies and ‘work first’ approaches.

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth sets the ambitious target to increase the employment rate in Europe to 75%, which demands better policies, better cooperation and better policies on education and life-long learning.

Our working group employment is a platform for cities to exchange good practices on local labour market policies. We work together with the EU institutions to profile the role local authorities play in shaping effective labour market policies and the importance of including cities in the governance of the European social agenda.