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EFBWW News

New Special Eurobarometer on “Undeclared work”. Construction remains high on the list.

21/02/2020

The European Commission published the results of a large survey on undeclared work, each comprising over 27,000 face-to-face interviews in all European Union Member States.

Comparing the 2007, 2013 and 2019 Eurobarometer surveys, the finding is that the proportion of all undeclared work that is in the European construction industry has increased over time. In 2007, 16% of all undeclared jobs were in the construction sector but 19% in 2013 and 21% in 2019. Over 1 in 5 undeclared jobs are now in the European construction industry.

Although, the percentages varies substantially across European regions, the proportion of undeclared work that is in construction activities has grown across all European regions.   

The EFBWW welcomes the survey, however stresses that that the current study only focuses on the so-called domestic undeclared work. If we combine this study with the study on the numbers of cross-border posting and the cases of cross-border social fraud and abuse, the percentage of “undeclared work” within the construction industry would be significant higher.   

link to the survey results