Employment or underemployment in the context of “Europe 2020” strategy implementation

In formulated long-term strategy “Europe 2020” attention is focussed on problems in the sphere of employment. Therefore one of the objectives of the strategy is to reach the employment rate on the level of 75% for women and men aged 20 to 64 by 2020. In National Reform Programs; individual EU member states adjusted their employment objectives to local needs while considering situations on their labour markets and practical probability of changes. Due to differences in social and economic situation in EU-28; and consequences of economic crisis particularly noticeable in individual countries; these objectives are diversified. Achieving the high level of this indicator does not reflect the full situation on the labour market because of rising unemployment and underemployment. Underemployment in the form of over-education; under-qualification or involuntary part-time jobs refers to a growing number of social group; particularly women and young people. The questions that naturally arise from these considerations apply not only to the employment rates; but also to the scale of labour underutilisation; the consequences of this phenomenon for the economy; society; both on micro and macro level. The main research questions are: “What is the scale and dynamics of employment and underemployment in the European Union?”; “How big are disparities across UE?”; “Is there a relationship between high employment and low underemployment?”; “What are the chances to achieve employment objectives in 2020?” Considering the aforementioned conditions; the goal of the paper is to present a diversity in employment and underemployment rate in EU-28 between 2008 and 2014 and to assess a potential probability of achievement of employment objectives by individual member states in the perspective of 2020. The execution of the goal formulated in this way imposed the structure of the paper that includes: 1) definition of underemployment; 2) review of employment objective in “Europe 2020” strategy; 3) analysis of the changes of employment and underemployment in EU-28 between 2000 and 2014; 4) presentation of employment objectives formulated in National Reform programs; and the assessment of their implementation.