Economics, 3rd Edition

Labour Mobility

Labour is notoriously immobile across European countries, at least if one rules out migration from the 

newer eastern European members of the EU such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and considers just the 

18 euro area countries or these plus Denmark, Sweden and the UK. In part this may perhaps be  attributed 

to differences in language, culture and other social institutions across Europe that make it difficult for 

workers to migrate. However, it seems that European workers are also very loath to move location even 

within their own countries. Indeed, the degree of labour mobility as measured by the percentage of the 

workforce that moves geographical location over any given period, is much lower within any particular 

European country than it is within the United States, and is even lower between the euro area countries. 

Europe therefore scores very low on this optimum currency area criterion.