Monitoring the Transformation of Occupations and Skills: Systematic and Qualitative Approaches in Regional and Local Labour Market Observatories

The world of work has always undergone complex transformations, however the incipient introduction of artificial intelligence has drastically accelerated the structural changes in the labour market which are fundamentally reshaping the profiles of jobs, and ways of working. This technological transformation is profound and comparable in scale to the industrial and organisational shifts seen in Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s, yet it is simultaneously accompanied by other overlapping transitions. The triple transition (digital, green, and demographic) along with economic crises, global conflicts and migration trends, is redefining skills needs for existing occupations and generating entirely new professional and roles at speed not experienced before.

Furthermore, significant shifts in cultural and social attitudes and expectations around job quality, security and flexibility influence how individuals engage with the labour market. These changes affect both supply and demand in ways that traditional indicators often fail to capture, highlighting the importance of considering social behaviour, identities, values, and preferences alongside structural and technological trends, when building insights about skills and labour demands.
All these changes not only redefine the content of jobs and alter working conditions, but also impact on how we monitor and understand occupational changes. AI technologies not only transform skill requirements and disrupt existing professional profiles, but reshape the recruitment processes and selection methods, as well as the professional and vocational education pathways. In effect, complex dynamics are created, but these vary by sector, region, and population group, making it increasingly necessary to adopt more sophisticated approaches to the labour market and occupational change studies. Qualitative research is becoming essential to complement qualitative methodologies and large datasets analysis, helping to understand at depth the very context-sensitive changes that impact people in their localities and regions. Such approaches can help inform in more meaningful way the more inclusive, adaptive and forward-looking policy responses to labour market problems.

While a growing number of quantitative tools and datasets offer a useful picture of trends and measures, complementary approaches are needed to enhance this picture at more granular level. Rich, actionable intelligence often emerges from regional initiatives, sectoral working groups, and collaborative processes that bring together companies, education providers, social partners, and local governance/public administration bodies. If only captured, such qualitative intelligence can offer valuable insights about how occupations are evolving, what skills are lacking, and which groups are most affected. At this moment, however, this knowledge often remains fragmented, informal, and difficult to integrate into wider policy frameworks.

The topic of this year’s Anthology focuses on how to systematically, ethically and with confidence, collect, organise/analyse and apply this kind of insight and knowledge. It explores systemic qualitative approaches to monitoring the transformation of skills, professional competences and occupations, combining diverse types of data sources and dialogue, and turning dispersed information into shared intelligence. By highlighting applied research methodologies, methods, practices and governance models from across sectors and territories, we aim to support dialog on foresight, collaboration and more informed and responsive employment and education policies to strengthen the capacity of regional ecosystems that are navigating through complex changes.