Labour market inclusion and economic well-being: a trajectory analysis for some European countries (1995–2019)

Abstract

The Europe 2020 strategy has been implemented since 2010 to recover from the Great Recession which has affected European Union countries. One pillar of this strategy is that economic growth should be sustainable and inclusive. Focusing on the concept of inclusiveness, a set of economic indicators observed over the 1995-2019 period in a subgroup of member countries is selected. To track the evolution of inclusive growth in each country, we propose an approach towards three-way data analysis. Using such an approach, a time trajectory showing the dynamics of labour market inclusion and economic well-being in each country can be plotted. This graphical analysis allows us to examine the extent to which economic growth has been inclusive in each country and compare the growth paths of different countries. The results show that economic growth has been heterogeneous across countries and has been coupled with a more inclusive labour market only in some countries. KeywordsLabour market inclusion • Economic well-being • Europe 2020 • Principal component analysis • Three-way data • Time trajectories