A YouGov survey across six European countries found no single issue dominating public opinion, even as the economy ranked high in most places and the continent sat under geopolitical security, economic strain and environmental pressures. That’s the polite version. The harder truth is that ordinary people are being asked to absorb the costs of a system that keeps tightening its grip, from housing markets to labour markets, while the institutions above them keep calling it normal.
In France, 47% of respondents ranked the economy among the two biggest issues facing the country, while 27% cited immigration. In Germany, 44% ranked the economy among the two biggest issues and 26% cited immigration. Around 68% of French respondents said they expected the economy to worsen over the next 12 months, compared with 58% in Germany. Those numbers don’t describe a healthy public sphere. They describe a continent where people can see the squeeze coming and know they won’t be the ones writing the rules.
The Economy as a Pressure Valve
Germany’s recent uptick in industrial production offered limited reassurance, with output still below pre-pandemic levels and recovery described as fragile. The country’s export-led economy has faced pressure from weaker demand in both the US and China, particularly in the automotive industry, which was once a key driver of economic growth. In France, first-quarter data showed economic growth stalled as the Iran war weighed heavily on energy prices, while political deadlock complicated efforts to pass reforms to improve public finances. The language is technocratic, but the effect is blunt: workers, tenants and consumers take the hit while the machinery of capital keeps demanding more discipline.
Spain stood out for a different reason. Nearly half of respondents, 49%, ranked housing among Spain’s two biggest concerns, making it the highest-rated issue across the six countries studied. Healthcare and the economy followed, both selected by 25% of respondents. The report linked those findings to a housing crisis that has dominated political debate in Spain over the past year. Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute showed house prices rose by almost 13% year-on-year at the end of 2025, the fastest increase in Spain in years and among the fastest in Europe as a whole. In 2025, data suggested a worker would have to devote the equivalent of 8.4 years of average salary to have a chance of purchasing an 80-square-metre home. The Balearic Islands and Madrid were among the most expensive regions for home ownership, while short-term lets in cities such as Barcelona have long sparked locals’ anger over the lack of affordable housing.
Who Gets a Home, Who Gets Shut Out
That housing crisis is not some natural disaster. It’s the result of a market built to reward owners, landlords and investors while everyone else is told to compete for what’s left. The survey’s numbers show the pressure in plain sight: nearly half of respondents in Spain naming housing as a top concern, with prices rising almost 13% in a year and an 80-square-metre home drifting out of reach for anyone living on an average salary. The system doesn’t need to say the quiet part out loud. The rent bill does it for them.
Italy was the only country surveyed where healthcare emerged as the biggest concern. Some 43% of respondents ranked health and the healthcare system among the country’s two biggest issues, ahead of the economy and immigration. The report said Italy’s public health services continue to face mounting pressure from staff shortages and an ageing population. Euronews previously reported that the country is short of an estimated 175,000 nurses, with low pay, heavy workloads and limited career prospects contributing to an exodus of trained medical professionals to other European countries. So much for the grand European promise. The people who keep hospitals running are pushed out, and the system calls it a staffing problem.
Denmark stood apart. International terrorism or aggression and climate change were jointly ranked as the country’s biggest issues, each cited by 27% of respondents. Immigration followed at 24%, while healthcare and the economy ranked lower. Even there, the state’s preferred language remains security, threat and management, as if the answer to every crisis is another layer of control.
AI Jobs, Efficiency and the New Labour Discipline
The survey also found that in four of the five European countries, more than half of all AI-labelled job titles are now beyond tech jobs. Germany led with 59% of AI-labelled titles outside tech, followed by the Netherlands at 58%. In France and the UK, 54% of AI-touched job titles were outside tech occupations. Spain was the exception, with 64% of AI-labelled job titles still in tech roles and 36% in non-tech. Employers are not only hiring AI specialists, but are also adding AI to the titles of jobs where the use of AI tools is required, and including AI in the job title is a deliberate choice that likely means the employer considers AI central to the role.
The data showed AI-labelled job titles in postings have been increasing rapidly across Europe. For the first quarter of 2026, Germany led with 288 AI-labelled job titles, followed by the UK with 160, France with 138, the Netherlands with 84 and Spain with 81. In the first quarter of 2022, the figures were much smaller: Germany had 72, Spain 8, France 35, the UK 61 and the Netherlands 21. As of the first quarter of 2026, AI-labelled titles corresponded to 4.2% of all titles in Germany, up from 0.8% four years ago. In France, 3.3% of all titles were AI-labelled, followed by the UK at 2.7%, Spain at 2.3% and the Netherlands at 2.2%. All of those figures were below 1% in every country in 2022.
Pawel Adrjan, Director of Economic Research at Indeed, said: "AI-related skills, tasks and tools are becoming mainstream in the labour market." He said Indeed classifies a job title as "AI-labelled" when at least five postings under that label have AI in the employer's job title in a given calendar quarter. He also said: "Employers are not only hiring AI specialists, but they are also adding AI to the titles of jobs where the use of AI tools is required – an indication of how AI is already reshaping jobs." Adrjan added: "Including AI in the job title is a deliberate choice that likely means the employer considers AI as central to the role." Indeed said it focuses on job titles rather than full job description text because the main body of a posting can mention AI in many different contexts that aren't necessarily related to the role itself.
The article also said the adoption of AI tools has accelerated rapidly across Europe, with 15% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU using generative AI for work last year, according to Eurostat. New non-tech job types have emerged, including a UK sales executive posting for a "Solution Sales Executive - AI, Data and Analytics," a lecturer post titled "Lecturer in Digital Business and AI," legal counsel roles including "Legal Counsel, Privacy, Product & AI," and operations associate postings asking for an "Operations Specialist, AI Enablement." In Germany, one HR manager posting looked for someone who can 'use AI in HR to increase efficiency.' In France, employers sought salespeople to sell AI products and solutions. In the Netherlands, postings called for marketing and advertising specialists who use AI. Efficiency, here, means the worker adjusts to the machine, not the other way around.