EU Long-Term Care Workforce Shortage: What New Commission Report Means for Elderly Care

The EU long-term care workforce shortage is real and worsening: the European Labour Authority (ELA) confirmed in an April 2026 report that demand for carers across the European Union is growing faster than the sector can recruit, while Eurofound data shows burnout among healthcare and care staff running at roughly 40%, far above the wider workforce average. For families in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Poland, the practical result is longer waiting lists, higher private-care costs and growing pressure on relatives to fill gaps that professional carers can no longer cover.

What the Latest EU Report Found on the Care Workforce Gap

The European Labour Authority's strategic analysis, The long-term care sector: labour mobility and enforcement challenges, published in April 2026, is the most detailed EU-level assessment of the sector to date. It concludes that demand for long-term care workers is rising faster than employment in the sector across nearly every member state, and that the gap is set to widen rather than close.

The report was presented on 23 April 2026 at a high-level conference in Madrid, hosted by Spain's Ministry of Labour and Social Economy. ELA Executive Director Cosmin Boiangiu joined Spain's Second Vice-President and Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz Pérez, and Stefan Olsson, Deputy Director-General at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, to launch the findings alongside a new EU-wide awareness campaign, #EUFairCare, running in two phases across April to June and October to December 2026.

According to Eurostat, around 3.1 million people worked in the long-term care sector across the EU in 2023, roughly 1.5% of the total workforce. The ELA analysis found that even this workforce is ageing internally and increasingly dependent on cross-border and migrant labour, particularly in domestic and live-in care, where protection gaps and enforcement weaknesses are most severe.

Why the EU Long-Term Care Workforce Shortage Is Widening

The shortage is widening because population ageing is accelerating faster than recruitment and training pipelines can respond, while pay and working conditions in the sector remain unattractive relative to comparable jobs. This combination is structural, not cyclical, meaning it will not resolve on its own without policy intervention.

Eurostat's latest EUROPOP2025 population projections, published in 2026, show the share of the EU population aged 65 and over rising from 23.4% in 2025 to 30.5% by 2050. The share of people aged 80 and over is projected to nearly triple over the century, from around 6% to 16%. Every one of the EU's larger member states, including Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Poland, faces this trajectory, though the pace differs by country.

The World Health Organization's European regional office has separately warned that the EU could face a shortfall of up to 4.1 million healthcare workers by 2030 across health and care systems combined, a figure that overlaps directly with the long-term care gap identified by the ELA. Demand for carers is not simply rising with the number of older people; it is rising faster, because the ratio of working-age adults available to care for each older person is shrinking at the same time.

Low Pay and Burnout: Why Carers Are Leaving the Sector

Low pay and burnout are the two most commonly cited reasons long-term care workers leave the profession, according to EU labour-market research. Eurofound's European Working Conditions Survey data shows burnout symptoms affecting around 40% of healthcare and care-sector staff, a rate significantly higher than in most other occupations and comparable international benchmarks.

The ELA report identifies precarious contracts, long and irregular hours, and limited career progression as compounding factors, particularly in domestic and live-in care arrangements where oversight is weakest. Because the sector is overwhelmingly female-dominated, the Commission has explicitly linked workforce reform to its wider gender equality agenda.

Low, stagnant pay relative to comparable roles in healthcare and other services
Physical and emotional exhaustion, with burnout symptoms reported by around 40% of care staff (Eurofound)
Irregular and unpredictable hours, especially in home and live-in care
Limited training and progression pathways, reducing long-term retention
Weak enforcement of existing EU labour standards for mobile and migrant carers

How the Care Staffing Crisis Affects Families and Care Quality

The workforce shortage is not an abstract policy problem; it directly affects how long an elderly parent waits for a home-care visit, whether a care home can accept new residents, and how much a family pays out of pocket to fill the gap. Low-income households are hit hardest, since they are least able to absorb rising private-care fees or lost income when a family member reduces working hours to provide unpaid care.

In practice, this means longer waiting lists for publicly funded home-care hours in countries such as Germany and France, care homes in rural regions of Spain, Italy and Poland struggling to maintain staffing ratios, and a growing reliance on informal, unpaid family carers, who are disproportionately women. Eurofound has separately documented the scale of unpaid care across the EU, noting that informal carers absorb pressure that the formal system cannot meet, often at significant cost to their own employment and wellbeing.

Care quality also suffers directly. Understaffed facilities report higher rates of missed medication rounds, reduced supervision time per resident, and faster staff turnover, which in turn erodes continuity of care for people with dementia or complex needs. For readers following broader EU health articles, this staffing pressure is increasingly cited alongside hospital discharge delays, since patients cannot be safely released without adequate home or residential care capacity waiting for them.

What the European Commission Is Proposing

The Commission's central policy response is the forthcoming European Care Deal, positioned within its Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030. Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness Roxana Mînzatu, who leads the file, has been explicit about the ambition: "Next year, we will launch a European Care Deal. Care cannot remain only a family responsibility. It is essential social infrastructure. We want affordable, quality care, fewer staff shortages and better working conditions for care workers."

The proposed Care Deal is expected to address working conditions and career development, assess the scale of investment needed across member states, and explore how digitalisation and cross-border coordination can ease recruitment pressure. The ELA's #EUFairCare campaign, running through the rest of 2026, is designed to complement this by clarifying the rights and obligations of mobile care workers, employers and households operating across EU borders, an area the ELA report flagged as particularly weak on enforcement.

Civil society groups, including AGE Platform Europe, have publicly urged the Commission to give the Care Deal real ambition rather than a narrow administrative fix, arguing that funding commitments, not just working-condition guidelines, will determine whether the workforce gap actually narrows. This tension, between coordinated EU-level ambition and the reality that long-term care funding and delivery remain primarily a national competence, is the key story to watch through the rest of 2026 as member states begin responding to the ELA findings.

What EU Families and Care Workers Should Do Now

Families with elderly relatives should not wait for policy reform to take effect before acting. There are concrete steps available today.

Apply early for publicly funded home-care or residential places through your national or regional social care authority, since waiting lists are lengthening in most member states.
Check eligibility for care allowances or informal-carer support payments, which vary significantly by country and are often under-claimed.
Ask care providers directly about staffing ratios and turnover before committing to a home-care agency or residential facility.
Current or prospective care workers should review the ELA's #EUFairCare guidance before accepting cross-border or live-in care roles, to understand contractual and labour-rights protections.
Employers and care providers should audit pay and rostering practices now, since retention costs less than repeated recruitment in a shrinking labour pool.

For wider context on how these pressures interact with household budgets and public spending across the EU, see Baba International's finance coverage, and explore more on Baba International for ongoing EU policy analysis.

Conclusion

The EU's long-term care workforce shortage is a structural, worsening problem, confirmed by the European Labour Authority's April 2026 report and reinforced by Eurofound's burnout data and Eurostat's ageing-population projections. The European Commission's planned Care Deal signals political recognition of the scale of the challenge, but delivery depends on member states translating EU-level ambition into funded, enforceable national action. Families and care workers across Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland and beyond will feel the consequences of this gap well before any EU-wide fix is fully in place.

Baba International Editorial Team

Our editorial team specialises in UK and EU personal finance, health policy, and economic analysis. All content is researched using authoritative sources including the ONS, NHS, Bank of England, ECB, and Eurostat.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the long-term care workforce shortage in the EU?

The European Labour Authority's April 2026 report found that demand for long-term care workers is growing faster than employment across nearly all EU member states, against a backdrop of roughly 3.1 million people already working in the sector as of 2023 (Eurostat). The World Health Organization has separately warned of a broader EU health and care workforce shortfall of up to 4.1 million by 2030.

Why are long-term care workers leaving the sector?

Low pay, burnout and irregular working hours are the most commonly cited reasons. Eurofound data shows burnout symptoms affecting around 40% of healthcare and care-sector staff, well above rates in most other occupations.

What is the European Care Deal?

The European Care Deal is a policy initiative led by Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu, positioned within the EU's Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030. It aims to improve care workers' pay and conditions, assess investment needs and reduce staff shortages across member states.

How does the care staffing shortage affect families?

Families face longer waits for publicly funded home-care hours, higher private-care costs and greater pressure on relatives, often women, to provide unpaid care. Low-income households are disproportionately affected, since they have the least capacity to pay for private alternatives.