Labour market participation
Updated: 10 July 2026
Employment research
John Hurley
John Hurley is a senior research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He took up the role of research manager in February 2012. He contributes to a number of research projects including the European Jobs Monitor and has authored or co-authored over 20 reports as well as journal contributions and edited collections during his time at Eurofound. His main research interests are in the areas of comparative labour market analysis, restructuring and the changing world of work. John is a graduate of both Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.
Topics of expertise
John is an expert in the following topics.
Research outputs
John is the author of the following publications.
Events, podcast and blog
John has contributed the following events, blog posts and podcast episodes.
4 December 2025
Podcast episode
Europe's productivity paradox
This episode of Eurofound Talks looks at why Europe has experienced a more profound slowdown in growth compared to other developed regions, and why greater labour input and higher human capital has not translated into higher output per worker. Mary McCaughey and John Hurley also discuss whether Europe can, and should, look to compete with countries such as the United States and China in the race to harness artificial intelligence.
4 December 2023
Blog post
Building back better: Construction essential for EU green transition
‘Building back better’ is not just an empty slogan – we need the construction sector to help us achieve our climate targets. Eurofound research reveals that construction is where the Fit for 55 climate policy package will generate the most net new employment as Europe looks to improve its energy efficiency and sustainability credentials. But if we are to usher in a new green era, we need to find the workers with the right skills to get the job done.
22 November 2023
Podcast episode
How will Europe’s green transition impact employment?
Climate change objectives and decarbonisation measures are vital for the future of Europe. But how will these objectives impact employment and the labour market? In this episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast series, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Senior Research Manager John Hurley about new research which shows a marginal increase in net employment from EU decarbonisation measures, but also potentially broad shifts in the labour market that could have a profound impact in several areas.
&w=3840&q=75)
9 May 2022
Podcast episode
Living and working in Europe: Past, present and future
This podcast focuses on our annual update on the state of ‘Living and working in Europe’. It highlights trends and changes – both positive and negative – in the way citizens across the EU work today, and serves as a guide to policymakers at EU and Member State level. Our experts detail these with useful examples and insights which might also help face into the challenges raised by the most recent results from Eurofound’s unique pan-European Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey.
&w=3840&q=75)
8 March 2022
Blog post
Marking International Women's Day - Sharing the caring: a necessary step towards gender equality
One of the most striking developments of the last half-century has been the huge rise in female labour market participation in advanced economies. More than two out of every three net new jobs created over the last two decades in the EU have been taken up by women, who now account for 46% of the wor
2 February 2021
Blog post
COVID-19: A tale of two service sectors
The employment fallout of COVID-19 has been a story of two types of service work. Office-based knowledge workers have largely kept their jobs and incomes while participating in the huge and apparently successful ad hoc social experiment in working from home. Client-facing service workers have borne the brunt of the lockdowns and the steep declines in demand for in-person services in restaurants, hotels, leisure and the arts. The upshot is that, unlike the ‘mancession’ following the global financial crisis, the first impacts of the pandemic have fallen disproportionately on low-paid female workers. But to see this in the statistics, we must start by looking beyond the unemployment rate.
2 April 2020
Blog post
Coronavirus: A labour market earthquake
It is less than four weeks since the first large European Coronavirus-related company bankruptcy (Flybe, a British regional airline, on 5 March), but it is clear already that the pandemic is going to disrupt labour markets as seriously as the global financial crisis, if not more so. A large majority of large-scale restructuring reported in the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) in recent weeks have cited the Coronavirus outbreak as the proximate cause of announced job losses.
1 April 2020
Blog post
What Europe can learn from living-wage campaigns
The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is having drastic consequences for the world of work. In most European countries workers who are not delivering essential ‘frontline’ services are being asked to stay home. Unfortunately many are out of work, while many of those who are not are minimum-wage and low-pay workers, including those working in retail and food-supply chains. How can we ensure that these workers, so essential to our daily lives, are adequately and fairly paid?
29 October 2019
Blog post
Where are all the good jobs?
Economic disparities have been decreasing between EU member states over the past decade, but at the same time inequality has been growing within member states. Despite national level convergence, the gap in wealth and income between the rich and the poor is growing in most of Europe. Some of this rise has been attributed to increasing returns to education pushing earnings up faster for those in jobs requiring higher levels of education – while wages stagnate for the rest.
25 October 2017
Blog post
New-generation cars boost manufacturing employment
Rising levels of employment in manufacturing in the EU since 2013 have seen the part reversal of a long-term decline in employment in this sector. Data from the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) database to early September 2017 show that, for the first time since 2005, the number of new manufacturing jobs announced in national media (91,740) outstripped the number of announced job losses (46,478).
26 July 2017
Blog post
Employment shifts in Europe during the recovery: three little noticed trends
The EU has finally recovered all the net employment losses sustained since the global financial crisis. It has been a long and painful process. But there is at last growing evidence of positive momentum in EU labour markets, if not quite ‘animal spirits’. Many of those member states most affected by the global downturn have recorded significant employment growth in the last three years – including Spain (+9%), Ireland (+8%) and Greece (+5%).
Other unit members: Employment research
Find more staff members of this unit below.
