Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Direct, which manages the distribution of more than a hundred million leaflets a year, was placed in compulsory liquidation on 20 December 2023, with the obligation to close its doors on 30 January 2024, resulting in the loss of 223 jobs. The closure may be attributed to a number of factors: the health crisis in 2020, which significantly slowed down economic activity; environmental standards, which are forcing supermarket chains to do away with all paper advertising leaflets; and the rising price of paper. For some employees, distribution was a salary in its own right, while for others, particularly retirees, it was a supplement to their income.
Eurofound (2023), Direct, Bankruptcy in France, factsheet number 200903, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/200903.
This working paper offers a comprehensive methodological overview of the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) databases. Even though the methodology has not changed over time, new categories have been added, and the way it has been used by researchers and policymakers...
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring...
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector,...
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure...
The more employee monitoring resembles surveillance – with its systematic, continuous and detailed tracking of employees' activities, behaviours or communications – the greater the potential for infringement of both privacy and data protection rights. Although the EU General Data Protection...
Since 2013, Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legislation has been documenting regulatory developments in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change. The most recent update to the...
