The European economy’s competitiveness is affected by its capacity to prevent skill gaps and shortages in the labour market, especially when enterprises and their investments form major contributors to faster economic recovery. The European employer survey on skill needs makes an innovative contribution to linking the world of employers with that of education and training, offering skill needs identification and anticipation at European level and in Member States.

This publication presents results from a pilot survey in 2012 for identifying employers’ skill needs in nine Member States. It describes the measurement concept and survey methodology, and presents illustrative findings with some implications for future work. The approach’s practicability is assessed and options for moving on to a large-scale survey on employer skill needs in Europe are discussed.