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.

Leiden, 3 July 2026 – SkiLMeeT researcher Federico Fabio Frattini (FEEM) presented new findings from the project at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economics, held in Carcavelos, Portugal.

Speaking during the Green Labour and Voluntary Standards session on 2 July 2026, Frattini presented research exploring whether green jobs provide sufficient financial incentives for workers to invest in the skills needed for the green transition.

The study, co-authored by Leanne Cass, Aurélien Saussay, Misato Sato, and Francesco Vona, analysed millions of online job vacancies across Europe between 2018 and 2023 to examine whether green jobs pay more than comparable roles and what drives any observed wage differences.

The researchers found that green jobs offer an average wage premium of 5.5% compared with similar vacancies in the same occupation. Approximately 2.8 percentage points of this premium are explained by differences between employers, suggesting that more productive firms or those with greater economic rents tend to offer higher wages for green roles. A further 0.9 percentage points reflect the greater skill complexity associated with green jobs, while 1.8 percentage points represent the additional wage return linked specifically to performing green tasks.

Overall, the findings suggest that while green jobs are associated with higher wages, only a small share of the premium is directly linked to green tasks themselves. This indicates that wage incentives alone may not be sufficient to encourage workers to acquire the skills needed for the green transition.

The research has been published in the Grantham Research Institute Working Paper series of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and can be accessed here. 

Leiden, 1 July 2026 – Piotr Lewandowski (IBS) presented SkiLMeeT research at the FORTIS project webinar on the impacts of automation on 30 June 2026.

Lewandowski showcased the paper “Automation and Educational Choice: Evidence from Norway”, co-authored with Karol Madoń and Vegard Skirbekk, which shows how industrial automation influences young people’s educational choices and the skills they acquire.

Using student-level data from Norway for 2006 – 2018, combined with regional data on robot adoption, the research investigates whether industrial automation discourages students from choosing vocational education pathways that lead to automation-prone occupations.

The preliminary findings show that students living in regions where exposure to industrial robots is rising more strongly are less likely to choose automation-prone vocational tracks. The effect is particularly strong among boys and among students whose fathers work in routine manual occupations. The study also finds that lower-achieving students are more likely to select these vocational pathways, pointing to patterns of negative selection that may contribute to widening inequalities in the future.

The webinar explored the implications of automation for labour markets, skills, education and public policy, providing an opportunity for SkiLMeeT research to contribute to discussions on the future of work and skills in Europe.

Leiden, 27 June 2026 – Piotr Lewandowski (IBS) took part in the expert meeting “AI and the Future of Industry: Readiness, Risks and Opportunities for Eastern Europe and Central Asia”, organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on 25 June 2026, in Dubrovnik.

The meeting brought together leading experts to provide input for the next edition of the UNIDO Industrial Development Report, which will focus on the role of artificial intelligence in industrial development. During the meeting, Piotr Lewandowski presented the paper “Workers’ Exposure to AI in Europe and Central Asia”, which examines cross-country differences in workers’ exposure to artificial intelligence. The study utilises indicators created in the SkiLMeeT project.

The research shows that workers performing the same occupation often carry out different tasks depending on a country’s level of economic development, leading to substantial differences in AI exposure. The findings indicate that workers in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia are, on average, less exposed to AI than those in Western Europe. These differences are driven primarily by ICT intensity, occupational structure, and firm characteristics.

Participants included representatives from UNIDO, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), Eurostat, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), academia, and organisations working on AI development and implementation.

Leiden, 18 June 2026 – Research from the SkiLMeeT project has been published in the Grantham Research Institute Working Paper series of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), providing new evidence on the role of wage incentives in supporting the green transition.

The paper, “Returns to green tasks in Europe: evidence from online job vacancies”, by Leanne Cass, Federico Fabio Frattini, Aurélien Saussay, Misato Sato and Francesco Vona, analyses millions of online job vacancies across Europe between 2018 and 2023.

Their findings show that while green jobs appear to pay around 5.5% more on average, most of this gap is explained by the fact that these jobs are often offered by higher-paying firms and tend to require broader or more advanced skills. Once these factors are taken into account, the actual wage premium for performing green tasks is only about 2%.

The authors suggest that wage incentives alone are unlikely to encourage workers to move into green roles at the scale needed for the green transition. This points to the importance of continued investment in training, reskilling and broader workforce development policies across Europe.

Leiden, 16 June 2026 – Piotr Lewandowski (IBS) will present the SkiLMeeT research during “The Impacts of Automation” webinar, organised by the an EU-funded project FORTIS. The event will bring together researchers, policymakers, educators and other stakeholders to discuss how technological transformation is reshaping work, learning and regulation in Europe.

The presented SkiLMeeT paper “Automation and Educational Choice: Evidence from Norway” co-authored by Lewandowski and Karol Madoń (IBS) looks at how exposure to technological change may affect young people’s decisions about education and future career paths.

The event will also feature Laura Lázaro Cabrera (CDT), who will discuss the European policy landscape around artificial intelligence and automation, including recent developments linked to the AI Act.

The webinar will take place online on 30 June 2026, from 11:00 to 12:15 CET.

Register here.

Leiden, 26 May 2026 – Najada Feimi (LISER) showcased SkiLMeeT research at the Joint Research Seminar on Open Job Vacancies Analysis, organised by the SkillsPULSE project.

The online event on 26 May 2026 brought together more than 50 researchers to exchange ideas and address key methodological and data-related challenges shaping the future of job vacancy analysis.

Her presentation, “The Data Processing Pipeline for OJV – Methods and Challenges”, addressed how online job vacancy (OJV) data can be processed to generate reliable insights on skills demand and labour market dynamics.

Drawing on a dataset of more than 100 million job advertisements covering Luxembourg, Belgium, France, and Germany, the presentation highlighted the complexity of working with web-scraped labour market data. Rather than relying directly on existing variables, the SkiLMeeT team developed a comprehensive data processing pipeline to extract key information – including skills, occupations, locations, and firm characteristics—from raw job descriptions.

The process involves multiple stages, including data cleaning, deduplication, information extraction using machine learning models, and validation against manually labelled data. These steps are necessary to address common challenges such as inconsistent information, multilingual content, and differences in data quality across countries.

The presentation emphasised that building reliable indicators from OJV data requires iterative refinement and careful validation at each stage, particularly when aiming to support cross-country analysis and policy-relevant research.

The seminar brought together Horizon-funded projects, researchers, and representatives from EU institutions to discuss how web-based labour market intelligence can contribute to understanding skills needs and supporting evidence-based policy development across Europe.

Leiden, 22 May 2026 – Najada Feimi of LISER will present SkiLMeeT research, “The Data Processing Pipeline for OJV – Methods and Challenges”, during the online research seminar on Open Job Vacancy Analysis organised by the SkillsPULSE project on 26 May (10:00–12:30 CEST).

Najada will contribute to the session on methodological and data challenges in Open Job Vacancy (OJV) analysis and how results translate into skills policy.

The seminar brings together Horizon-funded projects working on skills gaps and shortages, alongside researchers and representatives from EU institutions, to discuss how online job data and web-based labour market intelligence can support skills policy development across Europe.

Register here

Leiden, 9 April 2026 – Project SkiLMeeT is accepting papers for its final conference, “Workers, Firms, and Skills in the Digital and Green Transition”, to be held on 22–23 October 2026 in Brussels.

The keynote lectures will be given by Ines Helm (JKU Linz) and Oskar Nordström Skans (Uppsala University).

The deadline for submitting papers or extended abstracts is 10 May 2026 (by midnight CET). We welcome contributions from researchers across all social science disciplines, particularly papers addressing:

• Effects of the digital and/or the green transition on workers, firms and skills
• Measurement and analysis of skill demand and supply
• Skill gaps and skill shortages arising through the digital and/or the green transition
• Labour-market policies to reduce skill gaps and shortages
• Education and training measures to mitigate skill gaps and shortages

Please use the ConfTool system at https://www.skilmeet.eu/conftool/ to register and submit abstracts or papers.

You can find the detailed Call for Papers here.