Cedefop European skills and jobs survey (ESJS)

The Cedefop European skills and jobs survey (ESJS) is a periodic survey collecting information on the job-skill requirements, digitalisation, skill mismatches and workplace learning of representative samples of European adult workers.

The first wave (ESJS1) was conducted in 2014 in response to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, examining the incidence and causes of skill mismatches in EU labor markets. The second wave (ESJS2), carried out in 2021 in all EU Member States, Iceland and Norway, expands on this approach with a particular focus on digitalisation, technological change, and their impact on the future of work and skills, also considering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It does so by collecting harmonised international data using a common methodological approach, enabling cross-country comparisons across economic sectors, occupations and other key socioeconomic and demographic variables.

Why is this a digital skills resource?

The ESJS provides robust data on key labour market indicators, including:

• sociodemographic characteristics;
• job characteristics;
• job-skill requirements (literacy, numeracy, digital, analytical, manual and interpersonal skills);
• skill mismatches (vertical; horizontal; mismatches in specific skills; skill gaps and deficits; skill mismatch transitions);
• initial and continuing vocational education and training participation;
• labour market outcomes (wages, job insecurity, job satisfaction).

Strongly linked to the growth, sustainability and resilience ambitions of the European Skills Agenda and European Digital Strategy, the ESJS2 is a key tool for evidence-based policymaking in VET, skills and employment. The flexible survey design allows for updates in each wave to address emerging policy priorities. The ESJS2, for instance, investigates how technological change influences job-skill demands and how workers adapt through reskilling and vocational education.

Methodology

The second wave of the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs Survey (ESJS2) was conducted between 2018-2022 across all EU-27 Member States, Iceland, and Norway. The survey was developed by Cedefop in-house experts with support from an expert working group.

A cognitive testing phase was carried out in six countries in 2020, followed by a pilot survey in early 2021 to validate the questionnaire and methodology. The main fieldwork took place from May to August 2021, targeting adults aged 25-64 in wage or salary employment. A total of 46,213 interviews were conducted. Survey data was weighted using Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey (2019) to align with key demographic and occupational distributions. The final weights ensured that larger countries had proportionally greater influence on the overall European estimates, maintaining statistical accuracy across the survey regions. More information is available at the ESJS2 sampling methodology report.