Cedefop: Skills Forecast 2023

A team of Cambridge Econometrics’ labour market and skills anticipation experts led a consortium for Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) to produce The Skills Forecast 2023. The Skills Forecast provides an opportunity to view economy and employment prospects up to 2035 by country, occupation and sector across Europe.

The consortium was in partnership with Economix, the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University, the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies.

Visualised as an interactive tool, The Skills Forecast enables policymakers and industry stakeholders to understand the impact of current challenges facing Europe such as the green transition, geopolitical tensions, post-COVID changes and ageing populations, on future jobs and skills.

As consortium leader, Cambridge Econometrics drew upon decades of skills anticipation and labour forecasting expertise to:

  • produce sectoral employment and labour supply forecasts using our global macroeconomic model E3ME
  • lead Individual Country Expert consultations and implement feedback
  • quality check the data
  • produce country fiches and reports

Key insights

  • Service sectors with highest employment growth include real estate, professional science and activities, human health and social work, and information and communications.
  • Primary sectors will fall, but sectors in the Green Deal supply chain will see growth
  • New jobs will mostly be in high-skilled occupations. The fastest growing of the high-skilled occupations will be legal, social and cultural, information and communication and business and administration.
  • However, some low-skilled occupations will also grow in demand, replacing workers who are leaving the labour market. 1 in 10 will be additional posts, but all posts will require new and improved skills.
  • The most in-demand future occupations include teachers, personal service workers and sales workers.

Speak to an expert

Cornelia-Madalina Suta Principal Economist [email protected]






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