Generally related to labour underutilisation and youth inactivity, the Lab’s specific subjects of interest may be categorised into five research topics:

1. The precarisation of employment in metropolitan regions vis-à-vis urban transitions such as gentrification and touristification;
2. Mismatches between the skills supplied by the youth workforce and those demanded by employers, and impact assessment of EU youth employability programs such as the Youth Guarantee;
3. The erosion of employment conditions within alternatIve economic activities, namely the Platform and Social Economy- in this context, research addresses the possibility of reversing the reproduction of precarious employment through Social Economy practices;
4. The evolutionary trajectories of labour markets in the manufacturing and construction sectors vis-à-vis capital inflow and outflow, as well as capital rechanneling from one sector to the other;
5. Tracking employment changes across Southern Europe as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, aided by an Online Observatory set up to visualise findings at the regional level. Over time, this has evolved into a more comprehensive Employment Observatory for the EU Regions.