The European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) recorded a total of 326 cases of restructuring in the European Union between 1 July and 30 September 2009, involving some 119,000 announced job losses and 36,000 announced job gains. Restructuring activity as captured by the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) has continued to reflect more normal levels of activity in the recent quarter. The surge in restructuring-related job loss that the ERM captured in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 shows no sign of returning. Although most economic indicators point to an end of the economic downturn, it is unclear how labour markets will fare once public stimulus programmes have come to an end.

Europe is slowly emerging from one of the deepest recessions on record with the European Commission predicting positive growth in the third quarter of 2009. The most recent quarterly output data are beginning to paint a more encouraging picture, with positive growth taking place in 10 Member States, including France and Germany, between the first and second quarter of 2009. But in a variety of ways, each Member State continues to suffer the ravages of the economic shock provoked by the financial crisis.

Unemployment in the EU27 continues to rise, although the rate of increase is falling. According to latest available data in the European Union, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 9.1%. The level of unemployment in the euro area is higher, at 9.6%. Both, however, remain below the faster rising levels reported in the United States, at 9.7% in July 2009. As in previous quarters, the lowest unemployment rates were in the Netherlands (at 3.5%), Austria (4.7%) and Cyprus (5.6%). The highest levels were recorded in Spain (18.9%), the Baltic countries Latvia (18.3%), Lithuania (13.7%) and Estonia (13.3%) and Ireland (12.5%). Given that unemployment is a lagging indicator, however, it is likely that it will continue to rise even after output stabilises, possibly well into 2010.

During the third quarter of 2009, 118,896 job losses were announced across the EU. France records the highest number of 27,659 job losses. A much lower volume of job losses is reported in the other three countries at the top of the list: Germany (15,278), the Netherlands (11,950) and the Czech Republic (11,874). The UK follows with 11,487 reported job losses. In this quarter, the public administration sector (22,514 jobs), followed by post and telecommunications (15,753), and manufacturing of motor vehicles (11,947) accounted for the largest amounts of announced job losses.

During the same period, the ERM recorded 36,635 announced job creations. the UK recorded the highest number of announced job gains (10,863), followed by Poland (6,327) and Belgium (4,700). Romania (3,980) comes fourth in this list, just ahead of the Czech Republic (3,968). One in four new jobs created in Europe were in the retail sector.

In its latest edition, the quarterly also looks at restructuring in the European shipbuilding sector and includes a feature on collective redundancy data from Denmark.