Share of migrants in labor shortage occupations in the EU 2017-2021

Migrants in the European Union constitute a much higher share of occupations in which national authorities have identified a labor shortage than in occupations without labor shortages, as of 2021. Migrants comprised almost 14 percent of the workforce in all labor shortage occupations in the EU that year, while they made up just 8.2 percent of the workforce in non-shortage occupations. Many European governments see increasing targeted labor migration for work in sectors experiencing shortages as a key way of relieving the widespread labor and skills shortages being experience across the continent.