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The members of the Audiovisual Sector Social Dialogue Committee (EBU, EFJ, EURO-MEI, CEPI, FIA, FIAPF and FIM) agreed in 2014, as part of their biannual work programme, to engage jointly in a European project with the aim to carry out a study describing in a comprehensive manner the audiovisual sector labour market across several EU countries and of the changing forms of employment and work arrangements in the sector.

The study on the EU Audiovisual labour market and changing forms of employment and work arrangements was completed in July 2016. It is the first study at EU level to compare data on the audiovisual labour market in the EU and in ten selected EU countries, and the first study to analyse new forms of employment and work arrangements in the sector across Europe. The final study includes two distinct parts:

1. A report compiling an in-depth analysis of the AV labour market and changing forms of employment and work arrangements in ten selected EU countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom).
2. A European report, analysing and comparing European and cross-country specific data on the AV labour market and changing forms of employment and work arrangements. The report provides a fact-based analysis of the following major topics:

• main business operating in the AV sector in Europe and employment trends;
• the evolution of employment relationships in the AV sector in Europe;
• forms and conditions of contractual arrangements in the AV sector;
• the impact of changes in employment and working arrangements on access to life-long learning and new skills requirements;
• the impact of changes in employment and working arrangements on the density of trade union and employers’ organisations and on the coverage of collective agreements.

The study enables an informed social dialogue of European and national social partners and puts them in a position to formulate possible joint actions in particular as regards current shortcomings of available and data analysis on AV labour market related issues. It also enables them to further discuss the issue of new employment and work arrangements in the AV sector and the challenges they pose to workers, unions, employers, and industrial relations.

Some key findings from the study include the following:

1. At European level, Eurostat defines the AV sector in line with the NACE classification. However, this classification is inadequate for capturing the complexity of the AV sector in national contexts. In general, data are not comparable between countries or with European statistics which makes it difficult to provide an accurate and complete picture of the sector accross Europe.
2. The AV sector in Europe is growing in many countries (France, Italy, UK). Accross Europe, from 2008 to 2012 the number of active enterprises increased by 22% (to almost 100,000 companies), driven mainly by the increase in the production sector. In many countries the sector is characterised by micro and small businesses (mainly in production).
3. The number of workers in the sector increased from approximately 739,000 in 2008 to 811,000 in 2013. In 2014, a total of 118,886 workers were employed in the public service media, with a slight decreasing trend from 2012.
4. In 2013, 61% of workers in the AV sector were men. The sector has experienced declining trends in female employment from 2008 to 2013, which is likely to be a direct effect of the economic turndown. The same is true for youth employment. In 2013, 59% of workers in the AV sector were aged between 25 and 44.
5. There is evidence of increasing trends in the past few years towards even more atypical employment relations and self-employment in the AV sector. In 2013, 78% of workers in the AV sector were employed and 22% were self-employed workers, compared with 15% of self-employed in the whole European economy. Available data clearly points to employment being also increasingly characterised by other forms of atypical contractual arrangements.
6. In general, self-employed workers (as well as atypical workers) in the AV sector do not have easy access to paid lifelong professional training schemes, given the nature of their contractual arrangements.
7. The rise in numbers of self-employed and atypical workers leads to a situation where increasing numbers of workers are not covered by collective agreements.

Read the labour market analysis in English or French and the country reports (in English)

Read the executive summary of the labour market analysis in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish