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Winter 2023 Europe Labour Market Report: Key Takeaways
Dustin Burgess | February 8 2023
The labor market in Europe has gone through numerous challenges and changes over the past year - from facing an energy price crisis to rising interest rates, global supply chain shortages and the war in Ukraine.
To help businesses make more strategic decisions in navigating the constantly changing labor market, we have just recently published our Winter 2023 Europe Labor Market Report, which examines multiple metrics across countries to, analyzing billions of data points to show rising trends to help optimize hiring and retention across Europe. Here are some of the key takeaways and trends over the past year.
Nothing Is Certain
Unemployment rates are as low as they’ve been across much of Europe. However, inflation rates have skyrocketed. Job vacancies are increasing steadily in some countries, but slowing in others. Time to fill remains a challenge, but trends indicate a peaking of the markets may be in progress. And bill rates vary by industry and country. In short, there’s a confounding mix of positive and negative economic indicators.
Quick Tip: Leveraging contingent labor can help you increase organizational and business agility, enabling you to quickly scale up and down as the market dictates. Consider a data-driven assessment of your contingent workforce program to uncover new opportunities for optimization.
Businesses are Making Cost and Expense Reduction a Priority
Many companies are currently looking for new and different ways to optimize their spend and contingent workforce program management. They’re doing this in various ways, including investing more into data on the market, reassessing external workforce relationships, globalizing contingent workforce programs and more.
Gain data-driven strategies to build a resilient workforce in Europe when you check out our ebook.
Quick Tip: Prioritizing expense reduction doesn’t have to mean sacrificing talent quality. Look for underutilized strategies you can better leverage to drive cost savings without sacrificing long-term productivity, such as direct sourcing and worker redeployment. Companies can also tap into expertise for guidance on how to drive cost optimization without sacrificing talent.
Hiring Practices Are Being Influenced by the Recession
Price inflation, supply chain restrictions and high interest rates are all having a significant impact on how companies are hiring in Europe at the moment. As a result, hiring practices are being affected and causing leading organizations to increase their focus on better retaining employees, expanding their benefits and re-examining their pay rates. Utilizing contract talent also remains a part of an effective strategy to increase agility and flexibility in this climate.
Quick Tip: Target rate increase costs toward the roles most strategic to your business objectives, considering factors such as flight risk and candidate supply/demand. Also, consider expanding benefits packages and leaning in to enabling new ways of working (e.g. remote and asynchronous work) to ensure you don’t miss out on the best talent.
The War in Ukraine Has Impacted The Market
Contingent talent was already on the rise in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with contractor talent and as a nearshoring location even before war conflict began to escalate. Although the CEE talent pool is growing partially due to an influx of Ukraine refugees, the region still has significant complexities. As a result of these shifts, the competition has also increased in countries including Poland, Hungary, Romania and Czechia.
Quick Tip: To best take advantage of opportunities in CEE, companies need strong market intelligence across these locations. Without it, there could be a lack of alignment between locations, positions and rates, negating potential benefits. Also, make sure you have a comprehensive compliance program in place to manage risk when venturing into new locations.
Bottom line? The labour market in Europe will continue facing turbulence in the coming months. If businesses are looking to navigate it successfully and stay ahead, they will need to reconfigure their workforces and continue investing in contingent talent to improve their agility.
For more key takeaways and trends in the European labor market, including exclusive bill rate data on the region, check out the full report.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Magnit is helping organizations implement winning contingent workforce programs globally, please contact a Magnit representative at info@magnitglobal.com.
Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of Magnit and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.