This paper presents new evidence on the interaction between demographic and occupational change in Europe over the last 25 years. We use data from the European Union Labour Force Survey covering six European countries. The analysis is based on a cross-sectional comparison between the population and employment distributions in 1995 and 2019. This strategy allows us to study the changing demographic dynamics, which have brought a more feminized, aged, and educated working population, in a context of structural employment change, where higher job polarization or occupational upgrading are the main patterns. The results indicate that the increasing female participation has been associated with a strong general process of occupational upgrading that particularly benefited women. Still, the occupational profile of women is polarized relative to men. Although the process of educational upgrading was also stronger for women and overall they improved their occupational profile more than that of men, we find declining occupational returns to higher education for female workers in two countries. Finally, while European labor markets could accommodate the large increase in older workers, their occupational profile suffered some downgrading.

中文翻译：

---

过去 25 年欧洲的女性化、老龄化和职业变化

本文提供了过去 25 年欧洲人口与职业变化之间相互作用的新证据。我们使用涵盖六个欧洲国家的欧盟劳动力调查数据。该分析基于 1995 年和 2019 年人口和就业分布的横断面比较。该策略使我们能够研究不断变化的人口动态，这些动态带来了更加女性化、老龄化和受教育程度更高的工作人口。结构性就业变化，其中职业两极分化加剧或职业升级是主要模式。结果表明，女性参与度的提高与职业升级的总体进程密切相关，这对妇女尤其有利。尽管如此，相对于男性，女性的职业状况仍呈现两极分化。尽管女性的教育升级进程也更为强劲，总体而言，她们比男性更能提高自己的职业形象，但我们发现，在两个国家，女性工人接受高等教育的职业回报不断下降。最后，虽然欧洲劳动力市场可以容纳老年工人的大量增加，但他们的职业形象却有所下降。