Fixed-term contracts increase in EU

Fixed-term contracts are not the best to ensure safe work. In the EU almost 1 out of 6 employees are fixed-term employees, almost half of them involuntarily.

By country, Spain gets the highs rate with more than 30% fixed-term contracts, while other countries like Estonia, Ireland or UK have a very low percentage. Agriculture is the sector with higher fixed-term contracts.

A negative aspect is that both total fixed-term contracts (women:14.1% in 2000 to 14.9% in 2005, men:12.5% in 2000 to 13.9% in 2005) and Involuntary fixed-term contracts (women:6.6% in 2000 to 7.5% in 2005, men:5.7% in 2000 to 6.7% in 2005) have increased during the last 5 years.

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Employment and working conditions of migrant workers

Eurofound has issued a report on Employment and working conditions of migrant workers.

This report confirms the evidence that immigrants play an increasingly important role in the labour markets of EU Member States

In most countries, migrant people face higher unemployment rates and tend to be segregated in unskilled occupations and exposed to higher risks of over-qualification. As immigrants today are often educated, this represents a significant waste of human capital, and a strong form of inequality.


However there is room for optimism, based on the improvement of immigrants employment and working conditions based on the raising of self-employment and assigment to more skilled jobs.

An interesteing report worth reading.