We are pleased to invite you to another Seminar in Empirical Economics taking place at the library of the Institute of Economic Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (IER SAS), on:
October 15, 2025 (Wednesday) at 10:00 – 11:30
This time, the invitation has been accepted by:
Michaela Potančoková and Guillaume Marois
(International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria),
delivering a presentation titled:
“Projecting Occupational Skill Mismatch amidst Demographic Shifts in the EU”
Abstract:
This paper assesses long-term labour mismatches in the European Union (EU27) by projecting the occupational distribution of workers and skill-specific labour demand from 2020 to 2060. Using a dynamic microsimulation approach (Link4Skills-Mic), we jointly model demographic, educational, and labour force dynamics at the individual level, combined with country-specific projections of occupational demand. The analysis highlights growing imbalances: while the supply of highly educated workers continues to rise, demand shifts are not evenly distributed across skill levels. As a result, underutilization of high-skilled workers coexists with persistent vacancies in medium- and low-skilled occupations. Rather than indicating widespread labour shortages, these trends point to structural mismatches driven by the misalignment of worker qualifications, job characteristics, and hiring practices. To explore potential responses, we examine a series of policy scenarios such as expanded immigration, education reform, mid-career retraining, delayed retirement, and employer-led automation and upskilling. The findings show that while certain policies can reduce specific mismatches, no single intervention resolves all gaps. Notably, automation reduces vacancies but increases underutilization, whereas human capital strategies shift mismatches between skill levels. These results suggest that addressing future labour mismatches will require coordinated, multi-pronged strategies that integrate demographic realities with evolving job demands in Europe’s ageing and increasingly knowledge-based economies.
The seminar will be organized in a hybrid form – for those interested, the speaker and a couple of discussants will be present in the library of IER SAS.
Link: