Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 111 
The development of skill levels shows the most significant changes in the period between 2005 and 
2020. When comparing 2005 with 2020, for most occupations higher skills are required. In this period, 
the share of occupations requiring the three lowest education levels fell from 24.5% to 15.5%; the share 
of occupations that require a tertiary education grew from 24.9% to 36.4%. 
 
Figure 39: Workforce structure, skill levels – Eurostat305 
 
 
The migrant and mobile workforce in the EU27 also increased in the past two decades. The majority 
of migrants are intra-EU, that is, all workers who are born in a Member State other than the one where 
they currently work and reside; this number is estimated at 10.4 m illion (2019), based on LFS  data.306 
Cross-border workers account for another 1.5 million 307 and posted workers for 2.4 million. 308 In 2020, 
8.6 million extra-EU citizens (born outside the EU) were employed in the EU labour market, out of 196 
million persons aged from 20 to 64, corresponding to 5.3% of the total. 309 The sum of all different 
categories of mobile extra- and intra-EU workers is roughly about 23 million, or about 12% of the EU 
workforce.