Wages and innovation performance go hand in hand, says JRC report

Regions labelled by the European Commission as ‘innovation leaders’ have significantly more high-paid jobs than regions that are moderate performers, according to a new report by the commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Only 27 per cent of jobs in regions with moderate innovation performance are highly paid. The average share of low-paid jobs in leading regions is around two thirds less than in moderate regions. In some peripheral regions, the number of low-paid jobs is twice that of the EU’s richest regions, partly due to the decline of middle-paid manufacturing jobs.

According to the report, in both strong and moderate regions, the share of middle paid jobs has increased since 2002, with stagnant or even falling numbers of high and low-paid jobs.

Source: The changing nature of work and skills in the digital age, Joint Research Centre