Join us for a SkiLMeeT roundtable discussion at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) in Brussels, where researchers and European social partners will discuss the project’s findings and policy recommendations on skills and labour shortages in Europe.

The roundtable, “Skills and Labour Shortages in Europe: Lessons and Policy Recommendations from the SkiLMeeT Project,” will take place on 22 October 2026, from 13:30 to 15:00, at ETUI, Bd du Jardin Botanique 20, Brussels. Registration and a light lunch will begin at 12:30. You can register here by 19 October.

Joost van Genabeek (TNO) will present SkiLMeeT’s research on skills gaps and mismatches, while Prof. Vassil Kirov and Mina Kostova (IPS) will share findings from qualitative research on three occupations facing severe shortages: nurses, software engineers and construction workers.

The event will conclude with a discussion on policy recommendations, moderated by Prof. Vassil Kirov, inviting European social partners to share their perspectives and identify priorities for action.

Leiden, Netherlands, 10 September 2026 – The programme for the 2026 SkiLMeeT Conference, “Workers, Firms, and Skills in the Digital and Green Transition,” is now available. The conference will take place on 22–23 October 2026 in Brussels, at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union, Rue Montoyer 47.

The two-day event will feature four keynote speakers: Oskar Nordström Skans (Uppsala University), Ines Helm (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz) and Francesco Losappio and Frank Siebern-Thomas from the European Commission.

The programme includes more than 30 presentations and flash talks on topics such as the green transition, education and training, technology adoption, skill gaps, artificial intelligence, occupational change, and local labour markets.

Registration is open for non-presenting attendees. Presenting authors whose papers have been accepted are registered automatically.

Explore the preliminary agenda and register here.

Leiden, Netherlands, 14 October 2026 – The skills workers learn during vocational training can affect how well they cope with technological change later in their careers, a new SkiLMeeT report finds. Workers in routine-intensive occupations experienced larger wage losses when occupational requirements changed, while stronger digital training was associated with greater resilience, particularly among older workers.

The report, Workers’ Training and Resilience to Technology Shocks, by Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, examines 419 updates to German vocational training programmes alongside workers’ employment records. It focuses on people already established in an occupation when its training requirements changed.

Occupations more exposed to digital technologies updated their programmes more often. These updates shifted training away from routine tasks and towards digital, social and other non-routine skills. The revised programmes equip new entrants for changing occupational demands, while workers who completed their training years earlier must adapt while already in employment.

Five years after an update, daily wages for established workers aged 40–49 were about 1.9% lower than for comparable workers in occupations without an update. For those aged 50–59, the gap was about 3.3%. Younger workers showed little comparable wage gap, but were more likely to change occupation, industry or employer.

The wage gap depended in part on what the earlier programmes had taught. Workers in occupations with more routine-intensive training experienced larger losses across age groups. Older workers in occupations whose previous programmes already included more digital skills showed little evidence of similar losses. The report could not establish a similarly robust protective effect for social and communication skills.

The findings suggest that workers’ resilience to technological change can be shaped before they enter the labour market. Vocational programmes that reduce reliance on routine tasks and embed digital capabilities more broadly may help workers retain the value of their skills as occupations evolve. They also underline the need to help experienced workers update their skills. Yet the report finds that employers provided relatively little additional retraining following curriculum updates, particularly in firms that did not train apprentices.

You can read the paper here.

Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage (2026), Workers’ Training and Resilience to Technology Shocks, SkiLMeeT Deliverable 5.8. Grant Agreement No. 101132581.

Leiden, Netherlands, 9 October 2026 – Labour shortages and skills mismatches have intensified across the European Union since 2021 as technological change, demographic shifts and successive economic shocks reshape demand for workers and skills, with the pressures falling unevenly across regions and occupations, a new SkiLMeeT report shows.

The report, “Indicators to measure past, current and forecasted skill shortages and mismatches”, by Ludivine Martin and Michal Burzynski of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), develops a comprehensive occupation-level framework and dataset to examine labour shortages, skills, and skills mismatches across Europe over time.

Rather than relying on a single measure, the study combines indicators covering labour shortages, workers’ skills, perceived over- and under-skilling, hourly wages, working hours and employment growth. It also uses a forecasting model to examine how different automation and education scenarios could reshape employment across Europe by 2033.

The authors find that labour shortages, which were relatively limited in much of Europe before 2019, became more pronounced following the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortages are most visible in highly skilled occupations, particularly professionals and technicians, and are strongest in Nordic countries and parts of Western Europe. Eastern and Southern Europe show more moderate labour market tensions, often concentrated in specific occupations or countries.

The report also identifies growing mismatches between workers’ skills and the jobs they perform. Between 2010 and 2024, the share of workers reporting that they had more skills than their jobs required generally increased across Europe. Under-skilling, by contrast, shows no common European trend, declining in some occupations and countries while persisting or increasing in others.

The findings show that labour shortages and skills mismatches can coexist, as employers struggle to recruit workers for particular occupations while skills available elsewhere in the workforce are not fully used.

“Europe does not face one single skills shortage problem, and there is no single solution” said Ludivine Martin, co-author of the report and researcher at LISER. “Our indicators help distinguish between recruitment pressures, skills mismatches and weaker skill use.”

The report points to a growing divide in digital skills. ICT skills have improved overall, especially among high-skilled occupations, but progress is uneven. Intermediate and low-skilled workers are more likely to lag behind, with advanced ICT skills remaining weak or declining in several occupational groups. This points to the importance of upskilling policies that reach workers beyond the most skilled occupations.

Automation and education could reshape employment by 2033

Looking ahead, the report models employment in 2033 under nine scenarios combining different levels of automation and higher-education attainment.

The projections suggest that automation could reinforce existing labour market polarisation. Occupations more exposed to technological substitution tend to experience employment losses, while occupations that complement digital technologies generally perform better. Higher levels of educational attainment improve employment outcomes in many of the scenarios, although the effects differ substantially between countries and occupational groups.

Nordic countries appear comparatively well positioned to benefit from automation because of their high levels of human capital, digital adoption and capacity for skill adaptation. Eastern and Southern European countries show more heterogeneous outcomes, highlighting the importance of national economic structures and education and training systems.

“Automation does not affect all jobs in the same way” said Michal Burzynski, co-author of the report and researcher at LISER. “The projections underline the importance of education and training policies in determining whether automation leads mainly to job displacement or to new opportunities.”

Ludivine Martin and Michal Burzynski (2026). Indicators to measure past, current and forecasted skill shortages and mismatches, SkiLMeeT Deliverable D3.4.

Read the report here.

Leiden, Netherlands, 8 October 2026 – SkiLMeeT researchers presented the latest developments in the European Labour Market Dashboard and a methodology for measuring the digitalisation of jobs and skills during an online research webinar on 5 October. The session brought together 17 researchers and was led by Sadegh Shahmohammadi and Xavier Pinho from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

Pinho began with a live demonstration of the European Labour Market Dashboard, which uses LinkedIn data sourced from Revelio Labs and the ESCO framework to provide insights into occupations, skills and career transitions. The tool currently covers six countries represented in the SkiLMeeT consortium: Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland.

Participants were shown how the dashboard can be used to explore the ESCO classification of occupations and skills, analyse transitions between jobs and compare the skills associated with the same occupation across different countries. It also allows users to examine the geographical distribution of occupations and the skills most frequently associated with them.

Shahmohammadi then presented recent research on the Digital Semantic Score, a methodology that measures how strongly individual skills and job titles are associated with digital concepts. Rather than relying only on fixed occupational classifications or keyword counts, the approach uses semantic relationships between terms to create a relative measure of digitalisation.

The analysis indicates an upward trend in both the number of new job titles and their average Digital Semantic Score. The methodology can also be applied at the worker and occupation level, allowing researchers to examine how digitalisation changes over time and differs across countries. In the future, the same approach could be used to develop measures for other areas, including green and basic skills.

The Digital Semantic Score methodology has already been published and is available here.

The TNO team plans to further integrate this research into the European Labour Market Dashboard. Several organisations are already using the tool, and access can be provided for research purposes under certain conditions. Researchers interested in accessing the dashboard or contributing to this work can contact Sadegh Shahmohammadi at sadegh.shahmohammadi@tno.nl.

Leiden, Netherlands, 7 October 2026 – Workers entering the labour market after completing updated vocational training earn higher wages and are less likely to leave the occupation they trained for, new research from the SkiLMeeT project finds.

The study, Skills Mismatches and Worker Mobility, by Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, examines the effects of curriculum updates in Germany’s dual vocational training system. The researchers combine 756 curricula covering 492 training occupations between 1971 and 2021 with administrative worker records, measures of occupations’ exposure to technological change, and surveys capturing how well workers’ training matches job requirements.

People trained under updated curricula earn up to 4.1% higher than those trained under the previous curriculum. The gains are particularly strong in occupations undergoing technological change: among jobs with high exposure to new digital technologies, wage increases reach more than 6% for some cohorts trained several years after a curriculum update.

Curriculum updates also help graduates stay in the occupation they trained for. Those completing updated programmes are up to 4.7 percentage points less likely to leave that occupation – a sizeable effect given that around 37% of vocational graduates do so within the first five years of entering the labour market.

“Updating vocational training can make a real difference to workers at the beginning of their careers. When training better reflects what jobs actually require, workers are more likely to stay in the occupation they trained for, while updated skills can also translate into higher wages – particularly as technology changes the skills employers need,” said Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, co-author of the study.

The benefits of curriculum updates are strongest where change is most needed. Workers see higher wages when training is updated to address existing skills mismatches or to respond to new technologies. By contrast, updates bring little wage benefit where training already matches workplace needs and technological change is limited.

The findings suggest that vocational training systems should monitor changes in occupational skill demand and update curricula where gaps emerge. Technology exposure can provide an additional early warning signal: even where an existing skills mismatch is still limited, rapidly changing technologies may create demand for new competencies that training programmes do not yet provide.

You can read the paper here.

Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage (2026), Skills Mismatches and Worker Mobility, SkiLMeeT Deliverable D5.5. Grant Agreement No. 101132581.

Leiden, Netherlands, 25 September 2026 – Join us for a SkiLMeeT research webinar where Sadegh Shahmohammadi and Xavier Pinho from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) will present the new developments within the European Labour Market Dashboard.

The webinar will take place on 5 October 2026 from 15:00 to 16:00 CET. You can register here. 

In this webinar, Sadegh and Xavier will demonstrate an AI-based methodology to analyze the digitalization of millions of Dutch job profiles using LinkedIn data from Revelio Labs.

The methodology combines embedding-based similarity with a large language model (LLM) classification approach to map unstructured job information to harmonized ESCO occupations.

They will introduce the Digital Semantic Score, a metric that measures how strongly job titles and skills are associated with digital concepts.

Results will show how the digital transformation is shaping the occupational language, career pathways, and skills in the Dutch labour market.

Sadegh Shahmohammadi | AI Engineer, TNO

Sadegh leads AI initiatives at TNO, specializing in Large Language Models, skill trend analysis, and labor market dynamics.

Xavier Pinho | Data Scientist, TNO

With a background in Biomedical Engineering, Xavier focuses on applying advanced AI solutions to real-world labor market challenges.

 

 

 

Leiden, Netherlands, 23 September 2026 – SkiLMeeT researcher Mina Kostova (IPS-BAS) presented our research at the joint IREC and IWPLMS international conference, “Confronting Inequality: How can trends towards inequality in the labour market be counteracted, and what role can actors and institutions play?” held on 16–18 September 2026 at the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research in Oslo.

The presentation, “Nurses’ experiences in the context of staff shortages in Europe: problematic quality of work and a fragmented voice”, was co-authored with Vassil Kirov (IPS-BAS).

The conference brought together more than 100 researchers and experts to discuss labour market inequalities and the role of institutions and social actors in addressing them.

Leiden, Netherlands, 18 September 2026 – SkiLMeeT researchers Christina Gathmann (LISER) and Piotr Lewandowski (IBS) participated in the inaugural Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences, held on 16–17 September 2026 at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Organised by the LSE Data Science Institute, the forum brought together representatives from academia, government, industry and civil society to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping work and labour markets.

The discussions focused on the implications of AI for workers and skills, as well as the challenges facing governments and firms as they prepare for ongoing technological change.

The forum provided an opportunity to exchange perspectives on issues closely connected to SkiLMeeT research, including technological change, changing skills demand and the future of work.

 

 

Leiden, Netherlands, 14 September 2026 – A SkiLMeeT indicator framework gives researchers and policymakers a more complete way to analyse labour and skills shortages and mismatches across Europe by bringing together evidence that is often considered separately.

Presented in the Synthesis Report of SkiLMeeT Indicators, by Ronald Bachmann and Serife Yasar of RWI, the framework draws on indicators developed by SkiLMeeT to measure workers’ skills and job tasks, green and digital skill demand, AI exposure, labour and skill shortages and mismatches, occupational similarities and mobility, matching efficiency, and future employment and labour demand.

The framework reflects that labour shortages, skill shortages, and skills mismatches are related but distinct problems. A labour shortage occurs when too few workers are available relative to demand, while a skill shortage arises when too few workers have the skills employers need. Skills mismatch is broader, including situations where workers lack required skills, have underused skills, or are employed where their skills do not match demand. Distinguishing between these problems is important for interpreting labour-market pressures and identifying what may be driving them.

A high number of vacancies, for example, does not reveal whether employers face a general lack of workers, shortages of specific skills, limited mobility between occupations or difficulties matching jobseekers with available positions. By combining evidence from different indicators, the SkiLMeeT framework can help distinguish between these underlying problems.

The set of indicators also distinguishes between the skills workers possess, the tasks they perform and occupations’ exposure to transformations such as digitalisation, the increased use of AI and the green transition. They also help capture changes within occupations as well as shifts between occupations.

Indicators measuring similarities and mobility between occupations can further identify potential pathways into related jobs, helping assess where training, reskilling or mobility support may be most effective. Employment forecasts add a forward-looking perspective by helping assess whether current education and training pathways are likely to meet future labour demand.

The main value of the SkiLMeeT approach lies in combining complementary evidence. Rather than relying on a single measure, the framework can help researchers and policymakers identify labour-market pressures, diagnose their potential drivers and assess possible responses.

Ronald Bachmann and Serife Yasar (2026). Synthesis Report of SkiLMeeT Indicators, SkiLMeeT Deliverable D3.8.

Read the report here. 

 

Leiden, Netherlands, 7 September 2026 – SkiLMeeT researchers have developed an AI-based method to track how digitalisation is reshaping labour market, offering a new way to identify changes in job titles, skills and career pathways as digital technologies spread beyond traditional ICT roles. The research is now available on arXiv.

In the paper, “Measuring Digital Labour Market Transitions with a Digital Semantic Score: An AI-Based Methodology Applied to the Dutch Labour Market,” Sadegh Shahmohammadi, Xavier Pinho, Mairi Bowdler, Suhendan Adiguzel-van Zoelen and Joost van Genabeek of TNO use artificial intelligence to match different job titles with common European occupational categories. The researchers also introduce a Digital Semantic Score, which measures how closely job titles and skills are associated with digital concepts compared with a non-digital reference point. Unlike keyword-based approaches, the score is designed to capture broader meanings associated with technical digital work, hybrid digital roles, and business systems and automation.

The approach addresses a limitation of conventional labour-market statistics and broad occupational classifications, which may not fully capture fast-changing job titles, new combinations of skills and emerging hybrid digital roles. The study therefore examines digitalisation not only within occupations, but also through changes in occupational language, career pathways and worker skill profiles.

Applied to the Dutch labour market, the method shows that digitalisation is uneven across occupations. Digital job-title language is most prominent among managers and professionals, while digitalisation is also increasingly visible in business, marketing, administrative and automation-related roles. The findings suggest that digitalisation is changing not only traditionally technology-focused occupations, but also how a broader range of jobs are described and how digital capabilities are combined with other skills.

Between 2000 – 2010 and 2020-2024, some of the strongest increases in digitally oriented job-title language occurred in professional and managerial occupations, including ICT-related and technical-professional groups. The analysis also found increases in some machine operator, technician, service and sales, and craft and trade occupations, suggesting that digital language is spreading beyond traditionally digital jobs.

Newly appearing job titles have also become increasingly digital since the early 2010s, with their language more closely associated with digital concepts, tools, platforms, analytics and automation. This suggests that digitalisation is taking place not only within established occupations but also through the emergence of new roles and occupational terminology.

Workers’ reported skills show a similarly broad pattern. Technical capabilities such as artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning and cloud computing appear alongside digital marketing, business intelligence, user experience design, agile project management and process automation. The findings indicate that digital capability can take different forms, ranging from developing technology to applying digital tools in business and automating organisational processes.

The analysis of career histories adds another dimension. It shows that workers can move towards, away from or between jobs with a similar level of digital orientation. Moves into professional and managerial occupations were generally linked to more digitally oriented job titles, but the scale and direction of change depended on the particular career pathway.

Leiden, Netherlands, 3 September 2026 – Europe can prevent technological change from widening skills gaps, but vocational training and lifelong learning systems must adapt quickly enough to keep pace with changing jobs, researchers from the EU-funded SkiLMeeT project have found.

The new policy brief, Technological Change, Skills Gaps, and Workers’ Careers in Europe, by Lukas Jonas, Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, shows that regular curriculum updates can narrow the gap between the skills taught in vocational training and those demanded by employers.

The policy brief draws on two SkiLMeeT studies. One uses nearly five decades of German vocational curricula to examine how training responds to technological change and affects workers’ careers. The other links vocational curricula with German job advertisements from 2017 to 2025, finding that curriculum updates reduce skills mismatch by around 4 percentage points.

Workers entering the labour market after training under updated curricula also earn around 3.3% more on average, with gains reaching 5.5% in occupations particularly exposed to technological change. They are more likely to remain in the occupation for which they trained and to move to higher-paying firms. 

“Technological change does not have to create permanent skills gaps,” said Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, professor at the Utrecht University School of Economics and co-author of the brief. “When training is updated in time, workers acquire skills that employers need and see real benefits in their careers. The risk comes when institutions adapt too slowly.”

The findings show that digitalisation is transforming jobs from within, rather than simply replacing entire occupations. Clerks, technicians, production workers and care workers may retain the same job titles, while their daily work increasingly requires digital systems, data handling, communication, coordination and non-routine problem-solving.

New technologies are therefore shifting demand away from routine tasks and towards combinations of digital, social and problem-solving skills. The SkiLMeeT research finds that training content changes in response to this shift: curricula in occupations more exposed to digital breakthrough technologies are more likely to be updated and updated sooner. Their revision increases the supply of digital and social skills while reducing routine-intensive content.

However, not all workers benefit automatically. SkiLMeeT finds signs of skill obsolescence among the oldest incumbent workers, whose wages can decline by more than 3% when newly trained workers with more current skills enter their occupation. Younger workers are more likely to respond by moving to another occupation. “Workers who completed their education years ago also need realistic opportunities to renew their skills. Otherwise, technological progress risks widening the divide between workers with current skills and those whose training has become obsolete,” said Zierahn-Weilage.

The authors call for shorter and more systematic curriculum revision cycles in technology-exposed occupations. They also recommend stronger mid-career training and greater emphasis on transferable skills, including communication, adaptability, and problem-solving.

The SkiLMeeT findings suggest that Europe can limit the skills gaps created by technological change by updating training content regularly and strengthening lifelong learning. This can help workers maintain relevant skills and benefit from new technologies throughout their careers.

Lukas Jonas, Anna Salomons, Cäcilia vom Baur and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage (2026), Technological Change, Skills Gaps, and Workers’ Careers in Europe: Why Updating Skills Matters, SkiLMeeT Policy Brief No.2. Grant Agreement No. 101132581.

Read the full policy brief here.