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Environmental information systems
Circular Economy is a significant reason for increases in employment in the EU with more than 4 million people employed in circular economy sectors in 2021.
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We see a clear increase in the number of people employed in the circular economy. The trend is a steady increase between 2005 and 2021, where the number of people employed in 2005 was 3,345,348 (1.7% of total EU employment) and in 2021 4,284,745 (2.1%).
The Circular Economy Action Plan does not put a target on the number of jobs which should be attained but refers to a study which estimates that 700,000 additional jobs will be created between 2015 and 2030 “(…) -through additional labour demand from recycling plants, repair services and rebounds in consumer demand from savings generated through collaborative actions”. According to this metric, between 2015 and 2021, 420,724 jobs were already created.
The data is reliable and updatable every year. Furthermore, the data is free to access and represents the EU27 as a whole over a consistent time period. However, the sectors which are tagged as circular by Eurostat, only represent a subset of where circular employment takes place. The impact of the CE in other sectors is more difficult to isolate, and therefore, Eurostat uses recycling, repair, and reuse as proxies for the CE.
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