社会流动性助力欧洲经济提振研究报告

Europe is a leader in social mobility, but progress has stalled.Businesses that act can gain significant performance benefitswhile helping close the skills gap and boost productivity. A just and inclusive societyhas long been a strength of European countries. The continent is aworld leader in advancing social imperatives such as gender equality and, historically, socioeconomicmobility. Yet progress on the latter has stalled in recent years, limiting the economic growth that isvital for Europe’s competitiveness. Research shows that social mobility can accelerate productivity—including through greater workforce participation, better skills matching, higher consumer spending,fewer talent constraints on corporate growth, and lower healthcare costs. More than one-third of Europeans face significant barriers today, with lower employment, less-productive jobs, and slower career progress than people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds(SEBs). Ultimately, these individuals’ futures are constrained by their parents’ economic past. Boththey and society suffer as a result. This is a challenge, and not just for governments. Businesses have a critical role to play in fosteringa more inclusive, meritocratic, and productive workplace—and a great deal to gain from the moredynamic economy that results.As Europe’s population agesandbusinesses need new skills, thepools of available skilled employees are rapidly becoming insufficient. Companies that act now cancapture significant advantages, our research suggests, including not only better access to talent buthigher value creation per worker, stronger employee retention, and improved decision-making. Bysetting strategic objectives, leveraging data-driven insights, and implementing targeted initiativesrelated to recruitment, retention, and career progression, companies of all sizes and in all sectors cancontribute to Europe’s social mobility. The societal impact could be profound: a boost to the continent’s GDP of as much as 9 percent.In addition, if Europe became more socially mobile, it has the theoretical potential to close the2030 skills gap without any new training or reskilling. This could be the next frontier of Europeanproductivity growth. While social mobility has national and sector nuances that businesses should heed, particularly whenchoosing interventions, our research shows that the underuse of talent from lower SEBs and thoseemployees’ poorer workplace experiences are consistent across European countries and acrossbusinesses of different sizes and skill levels. Our report analyzes social mobility through the lenses of three stakeholder groups: society,employers, and employees (see sidebar “Methodology”). We outline the challenges that exist today,demonstrate the potential economic benefits of improving social mobility, and suggest actions thatdifferent types of European businesses could take to boost productivity through social mobility. Europe’s progress on social mobilityhas stalled in recent years, limitingthe economic growth that is vitalfor the continent’s competitiveness. Methodology Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) asthe basis for defining occupational skill level.Low-skill jobs require primary and secondaryeducation accompanied by on-the-jobtraining and include ISCO “elementary”occupational roles such as cleaners, laborers,and food preparation assistants. Workers inmedium-skill occupations need vocationaltraining and include nurses, lab technicians,paralegals, and social workers. High-skilljobs require tertiary education and includemanagerial positions and professionaland technical roles such as teachers, datascientists, and civil engineers. publicly available and unpublished) fromEurostat’s EU Labour Force Survey to betterunderstand Europeans’ socioeconomicbackgrounds. In parallel, we surveyedmore than 3,000 British, German, andItalian workers from different SEBs. Ourconclusions were further informed by areview of more than 50 publications on theeffect of socioeconomic background onindividuals’ workplace outcomes. Definitions We definesocial mobilityas an individual’sability to move up the socioeconomic ladderover their lifetime. Our research analyzesthe degree to which a person’s starting pointin life shapes their socioeconomic future.While we acknowledge that social mobilityis a multigenerational issue, we focus on thechange within a single generation because ofdata availability. We definesocioeconomic diversityin a business as the degree to whichthe company’s workforce reflects thesocioeconomic demographics of thecountries in which it operates. Treatment of data Our approach to data varied among thedifferent stakeholder groups. Society and employers.For our societal andbusiness perspective analyses, we createdthree SEB groups using level of parentaleducation as a proxy for socioeconomicbackground, in line with broader research onthis topic. We assessed parents’ educationbased on data sourced from Eurostat’sEU Labour Force Survey