Greece’s labour market tells a mixed story. After one of the deepest crises in Europe, unemployment has fallen and employment has recovered, yet many problems remain. Long-term unemployment is still high, real wages have not fully regained their purchasing power, and most jobs are in small firms with limited growth prospects. At the same time, major reforms changed how wages are set, reducing collective bargaining and making the minimum wage the main pay floor for many workers. This raises an important question: has the Greek labour market truly recovered, or has it settled into a new and more fragile balance? Understanding this is key for designing policies that support stable jobs, fair pay, and inclusive growth in the future.

Romania’s labour market faced major structural challenges from 2000 to 2024. Employment rates have risen, but the number of employed individuals has reduced mainly due to demographic decline and emigration. The workforce is aging and young people face difficulties in transitioning from education to employment. Persistent disparities by gender, region, area of residence, education, and age constrain labour supply and deepen inequalities. Limited public resources and institutional and legislative weaknesses limit the effectiveness of labour market integration policies for vulnerable groups and allow informal employment to persist.

Work on different days of the week is not equally desirable to workers. The same is true for work performed at different times of the day. Undesirable work times are more common among less educated workers, young and quite old workers, minorities, and immigrants. There are substantial cross-country differences in patterns of work timing, with work in lower-income countries distributed more evenly across the week. Policies to affect the timing of work are few, but they do alter outcomes.

Labour market discrimination is widespread and raises ethical, societal, and efficiency concerns. It not only results in the unfair treatment of individuals with comparable skills, but also imposes broader costs on society by eroding trust and weakening cohesion. Moreover, discrimination limits the full potential of the working-age population by excluding talent or trapping people in roles below their abilities. These effects are amplified by feedback loops: fewer opportunities lower labour market participation and productivity, while the harm discrimination inflicts on mental and physical health further reduces economic output.

In the past 25 years, the Chilean labour market has observed a modernisation in terms of its transition to a service economy, but also in terms of its institutional robustness. It has seen a consistent growth in the labour force, driven by women’s entrance in the labour market, and a sustained increase in earnings from salaried work. However, it faces obstacles to drive growth through labour productivity and to ensure that growth translates to better socioeconomic outcomes for workers as a large low-productivity segment persists, also driving informality. These obstacles include lengthy permits, human capital deficits, low R&D investment, as well as slow technological adoption. Solving these issues requires coherent policy making beyond employment and labour policy.

Brain drain refers to the selective emigration of highly educated people, who often have stronger incentives to migrate and face fewer barriers. At first glance, this seems to be an adverse situation: losing doctors, engineers or teachers could hinder development. However, migration can also be beneficial by spurring investment in skills, fueling remittances, fostering innovation, business links, and transfers of knowledge and norms. The net impact depends on the skills involved and the context, creating an opportunity for policies that transform emigration into a driver of development.

The Portuguese labour market has stabilised after the 2010–2013 sovereign debt crisis, which pushed unemployment to a historic 18.5%. By 2025, the rate of unemployment has exhibited low-record levels reaching 5.9%. Long-term unemployment has declined, and the female employment rate reached historical values. Yet, several structural imbalances persist. Productivity levels remain low compared to European peers, and wages continue to struggle to keep pace with the cost of living.

How do minimum wage policies interact with labour tax evasion? In many transition economies, two features stand out: a large spike in the wage distribution at the minimum wage and widespread use of “envelope wages”—undeclared cash paid in addition to official earnings. This spike can be explained by the over-representation of tax-evading employers among minimum wage payers. In such a context, raising the minimum wage may serve as an enforcement tool by compelling evading firms to convert part of the undeclared pay into formal wages in order to comply with the legal minimum.