Volume 1, Issue 1, 2026
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The digital transition is creating new opportunities and challenges for labour markets across the European Union, influencing employment patterns, productivity, labour costs, and working conditions. This study investigates how the four dimensions of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Human Capital, Connectivity, Integration of Digital Technology, and Digital Public Services, are associated with labour market performance in the 27 EU Member States over the period 2017–2022.
The empirical analysis combines DESI and Eurostat data and applies descriptive statistics, panel unit-root tests, Granger causality analysis, and Elastic Net regression modelling. The results suggest that connectivity is the most consistent driver of improved labour market outcomes, being associated with higher labour productivity and fewer long working hours.
The analysis further highlights substantial cross-country variation, indicating that the benefits of digital transformation depend not only on technological progress but also on institutional and economic conditions. These findings provide new evidence on the labour market implications of digitalisation and offer useful insights for policymakers pursuing the objectives of the European Digital Decade.
Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms and conditions of the license Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
Article info: Received: 2 March, 2026; Revised: 9 April, 2026; Accepted: 12 May, 2026; Published: 17 May, 2026
