Dr. Nikos Kapitsinis (p), Dr Adrian Marteen Rodriguez del Valle, Prof Esteban Fernández Váz, Prof Mihail Arandarenko

The green and digital transitions are reshaping national and regional economies across Europe. Efforts to decarbonize energy systems, transform production processes by further digitalization, and redesign value chains are changing the structure of industries and the geography of jobs. Jobs may be generated to alleviate environmental pressures through technological advancements, others may be reallocated from energy-intensive industries to more circular activities, while some jobs may be lost without being replaced. However, these shifts evolve unevenly, varying across industries and regions, raising concerns about winners and losers and the fair transition of the labour market. Studies on the process of Job Creation and Destruction (JCD) have analyzed the transformation of labour markets in the current transitionary period, although the largest body of literature on JCD and its effects focuses on the national level. Thus, they relatively overlook lower-scale geographical variation due to the regionally specific socio-economic context. This paper analyzes the geographically uneven effects of job creation and destruction in the context of the green and digital transitions across industries and European regions. It presents findings of the ISABEL project (https://isabelproject.eu/) on the JCD procedure in the context of the green and digital transitions. Using secondary data on JCD from the CompNet database, it analyzes job creation, job destruction, and gross employment growth in EU NUTS2 regions (plus the UK and Serbia) by industry at the NACE 2-digit level.

Dr. Wojciech Dyba (p)

One of the strongest sectors of the economy in Central and Eastern European countries, responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs, is the automotive industry. This sector is currently facing a major challenge in the form of electromobility – the gradual shift away from traditional petrol and diesel engines in favour of low- and zero-emission drives.
The aim of the presentation is to present the opportunities and threats that electromobility presents for economies and labour markets in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.
On the one hand, new investments and new plants are emerging: producing new electric vehicles, batteries and chargers. The market for the sale and servicing of electric vehicles is opening up, as well as the possibility of processing and recycling used batteries.
On the other hand, many plants producing traditional vehicles and components for them (especially those related to combustion engines) are being closed down or reducing their workforce. Also, the future of jobs in companies dealing with the import and repair of used cars is uncertain. The competitiveness of the automotive industry, which is heavily dependent on exports to Western European markets, is threatened by a number of factors: from rising labour and electricity costs, through environmental regulations, to imports of cars and car parts from China (which have significantly lower production costs and at the same time control the entire value chain in electromobility).
Trends in the production of vehicles and electrical equipment (including batteries and chargers) in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as employment in corresponding sectors of the economy, will be presented using an analysis of existing sources: statistical data and industry reports. Then, the presentation will show results of interviews with motorisation experts and major companies representatives. Case studies will be used to present examples of new companies or those that have successfully exploited the trend towards electromobility for their development. Examples of threats in the form of closures of production plants associated with traditional combustion engines or reductions in employment in some of them will also be presented. Finally, scenarios for the development and effective adaptation of enterprises and labour markets to the trend of electromobility will be formulated.

Ms Maria Adamakou (p), Dr Fernando Rubiera Morollon, Dr Mihail Aradarenko, Dr Despoina Kanteler, Dr Nikos Kapitsinis, Dr Lefteris Topaloglou

European regional labour markets are undergoing profound restructuring, driven by decarbonisation, digitalisation and geopolitical and economic uncertainty. These 'twin transitions' generate simultaneous processes of job creation and destruction (JCD), which reshape sectoral structures, occupational profiles and regional development pathways unevenly and in a path-dependent manner. This paper proposes a regional analytical framework that examines gross labour reallocation, structural adjustment dynamics, and emerging skill mismatches, moving beyond net employment change. By conceptualising the twin transitions as interacting macro-drivers, the study explores the joint influence of technological upgrading, industrial restructuring, and decarbonisation policies on employment volatility and regional resilience. A review of cross-regional data has produced an analysis that shows differentiated adjustment pathways for European regions, finding that the regions that contain a diversified economy, have a vibrant innovation ecosystem and have proactive governance of the labour market are likely to have more adaptive capacity than those regions that are mono-industrial and reliant upon coal, which are at a higher risk to experience transitional unemployment and long-term scarring effects. The paper concludes that managing the twin transitions requires place-based strategies that integrate reskilling systems, anticipatory skill intelligence and coordinated industrial and labour market policies. The paper contributes to our understanding of regional labour market transformation by highlighting the structural and territorial dimensions of Europe’s green and digital transitions.