European Blue Card - The EU Job Market

Another great question came in via email from Yahaira who asked:

What industries will be especially interested in foreign workers?

Since one of the pre-requisites for applying for a Blue Card is landing a job and having a work contract, this question is highly pertinent to our discussion. 

I think the best place to start is with an organization called CEDEFOP:  the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.   This is an EU agency with the following mission:

To ensure economic and social development it is essential that vocational education and training meets the needs of the citizen, the labour market and society. Building on a rich tradition of VET systems in Europe, governments and social partners devise policies for modern and innovative VET, which is a key element for employment, social inclusion and the competitiveness of the EU.
Cedefop is the centre of expertise to support the development of VET and evidence based policy making. It provides advice, research, analysis, information, and stimulates European cooperation and common learning. Its networks allow the centre to keep abreast of recent developments and to cooperate and share information.

Their website is a gold mine of information about the EU job market.  Here are a few of their publications that should be of interest to anyone looking for work in the EU.

Future Skill Supply in Europe:  Key Findings (2009). Available in six languages.  This is an analysis of the EU job market trends up to 2020.

Skills Supply and Demand in Europe:  medium-term forecast up to 2020 (2010).  A must-read for anyone inside or outside the EU who is or will be looking for work.  Check out Table 5 which gives the employment trends by industry for the EU-27.

Skills for Green Jobs (2010).  This is an analysis of new and emerging skills requirements coming out of the move toward "Green" (environmentally friendly) industries.  See Table 1 for examples of "upskilling" - from Construction Worker to Energy Auditor and so on.  This paper is the result of a collaboration between CEDEFOP and the ILO (International Labor Organization).

Guidance Supporting Europe's Aspiring Entrepreneurs (2011). This is a policy paper about how economic actors can better support (through education, training and by creating an innovative mind-set) entrepreneurial activity in EU countries.

The above is just a few of the gems that can be found on their site.  Have a look and bookmark the site since it is regularly updated with new information, studies and projects.

Hope you find this helpful and thanks again to Yahaira for the question.