Special Eurobarometer 261: European Employment and Social Policy

In order to get a better idea of how much people know about EU employment and social policy and what they think of it, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities commissioned this Eurobarometer study, which was carried out by TNS Opinion & Social using a representative sample of 24,815 people aged 15 or older in the 25 Member States,two pre-accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania) and two candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey). The study assessed how European citizens perceive the European Union's role in employment and social affairs, and how aware they are of EU instruments such as the European Social Fund. It also looked at the level of public approval for measures promoting the concept of 'flexicurity' – a policy approach which combines more flexible labour markets with high levels of employment security and social protection. This approach is currently a key issue in EU policy debates. The survey also looked at the employment situation of European citizens and their own vision of the future – in other words, their personal expectations of finding a job, or keeping the one they have, in the near future. Finally, the study focused on the strategies and tools promoted by the European Employment Strategy and the ESF, and looked at whether European citizens considered them important for finding, or keeping, a job. Particular attention was paid to training, and its impact on people's integration into the labour market and how well they adapt to a changing working environment. #####The results by volumes are distributed as follows: * Volume A: Countries * Volume AA: Groups of countries * Volume A' (AP): Trends * Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries * Volume B: EU/socio-demographics * Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics * Volume C: Country/socio-demographics ---- Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: [https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer](https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer)