Countries providing high quality jobs and effective social protection and investing in human capital have proved to be more resilient to the economic crisis. This is one of the main findings of the 2014 Employment and Social Developments in Europe Review, which has looked back to the legacy of the recession.

It also stresses the need to invest in the formation and maintenance of the right skills of the workforce to support productivity, as well as the challenge of restoring convergence among Member States.

The Review has looked into the lessons learnt from the recession to see that its negative impact on employment and incomes was smaller for countries with more open and less segmented labour markets, and stronger investment in lifelong learning. In these countries, unemployment benefits tend to cover many of the unemployed, are linked to activation, and responsive to the economic cycle.