In the last few years, there has been a growing number of so-called “coworking” places in the world and in particular in Europe. While the first “coworking space” was invented in the United States, half of these spaces are now located in Europe. The emergence of these new workplaces corresponds to a certain need, given the growth of freelancers and teleworking practices. However, and beyond a transformation of the world of work, with less salaried employees and less localized businesses, they also show another management, an alternative production, territory and governance management model; a new economic and democratic model.
Within this context and the activities of COWORKMED project, a thorough innovation and labor market comparative analysis was conducted by the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development with the main purpose of presenting a common approach and main indicators in order to analyze “innovation” and “labor market” topics for the 5 countries that participate in the project (Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Croatia).
As a preliminary step for this analysis, a summary of the key points from all other studies conducted within COWORKMED project is being presented, focusing on the following topics:
- Legal framework concerning coworking theme at EU, MED, national and regional level
- Quantitative data on coworking in MED area
- New business and innovation models
- Social benefits due to coworking process
- Territorial benefits due to coworking process
- SWOT analysis on coworking in MED area
Regarding the labor market comparative analysis, in order to facilitate our analysis, herein we are going to focus on the following key labor market indicators (per country):
- Labor Force Participation Rate (number of people in the labor force / the total civilian population of those 16 years old and older)
- Unemployment Rate & youth unemployment rate (number of unemployed / number of people in the labor force)
- Employment/Population Ratio (number of job-holding civilians who are at least 16 years old / total number of people in the civilian population within the same age group).
- Aggregate Hours Worked (total hours worked by all employees)
- GDP growth rate and GDP per capita
- National minimum wage
Regarding the innovation comparative analysis, a thorough analysis of the following key innovation indicators will take place:
- Illustration of the innovation types, by business size, as a percentage of all businesses in each category
- New-to-market product innovators, by size, as a percentage of all businesses in each size category
- New-to-market product innovators in manufacturing and services sector, as percentage of all businesses in each sector
- The innovative businesses in ICT manufacturing and IT services, as a percentage of businesses in the relevant category
- Categorization of SMEs and large businesses participating either in international markets or in public sector markets by innovational status
- Businesses collaborating on innovation with higher education or research institutions
- Businesses collaborating on innovation with suppliers and clients
- Businesses engaged in international collaboration for innovation
- Businesses receiving public support for innovation
