Arena’s Director Brigitte Alfter, and freelance journalist Jose Miguel Calatayud map the structural forces behind, and potential remedies for, the decline of labour journalism across Europe.
A new Arena Paper on the decline of labour journalism is the latest in our series of articles reflecting on journalism practice in our time.
While it is possible to trace good, regular, in-depth reporting about labour, these stories are now rare in mainstream media, often appearing only in niche outlets. Few journalists are specialising in the field, and labour desks are, in effect, extinct — despite the importance and often monumental nature of the stories that do break through:
“The occasional reports include slave like work conditions, wages too low for a decent living standard, survival-of-the-fittest competition for labour in legal grey-zones and systematic use and abuse of illegal migrants for the black labour market.”
The Paper finds that the decline in dedicated coverage is not simply for lack of newsroom funds; according to our research, the world of work is no longer considered a desirable beat for journalists.
And yet, as the engine of the transnational economy, labour is central to the daily lives of millions of us across Europe, as well as to the laws of the EU. Our Paper maps what has shifted, why, and what could replace the traditional ‘labour beat’.
What the paper covers
Our new paper maps the gap between labour issues and labour reporting, causes for the decline in coverage, and what Arena sees as the way forward.
Our research methodology combined three approaches: a literature review, a series of interviews with journalism practitioners, and a survey. Alfter and Calatayud note that literature is fragmented and scarce, but manage to find relevant sources from as recent as 2026 to trace the decline of the labour beat from the post-war period to today. Touching on the journey from “Thatcherism” and “Reagonomics” to today’s polarisation, they take note of not only media scholars such as Christopher H. Martin, Dominique Marchetti and Marcel Garz, but also economists such as Joseph Stiglitz. Their research finds labour now filed under under ‘social issues’ which, while still considered ‘hard news’, is often subsumed by the ‘prestige’ beats of politics and international conflict, in a media market molded by algorithms.
Conclusions are built from what our colleagues around Europe told us the problems and solutions could be, in a series of semi-structured interviews and in response to survey questions. What follows is what the literature, and those in the field, told us.
The findings
The status quo: While labour was temporarily driven to the top of the agenda by the COVID-19 pandemic, dedicated labour desks are nearly gone from mainstream European newsrooms. What coverage remains is scattered across economy, business, society and other sections, which fragments the picture.
This not only reduces the public’s ability to understand and act on what they read, but also journalists’ ability to understand the field, build on reporting and achieve impact. An example cross-border investigation into migrant worker trafficking demonstrates the complexity of many labour stories, and their potential for wide-ranging impact across Europe: 5 countries are involved across gang recruitment, the borders straddled, the labour itself, the company handling the eventual sale of goods and the response of authorities post-publication. The story touches on migration, human rights and trafficking, and the justice system, but stopped short of addressing EU regulation. This complex and nuanced work is being lost in the current climate, even before the potential for an improved EU-focused story with a ‘supranational angle’ for more coherent impact, can be considered.
The drivers: The decline in labour reporting is due to the same forces of decline that can be observed within the labour market itself: job insecurity, trade unions’ shrinking public presence, and weaker class consciousness among journalists alongside other workers.
There is now a widespread view that labour isn’t a “sexy” beat among journalists, and in addition, increasing financial inequality means greater resources for, and the growing influence of, corporate PR in the field.
The future: The highest potential for impact in this area is clear from Arena’s research findings: practitioners we consulted name cross-border support as both the biggest gap and the biggest opportunity.
Though labour is transnational in law and economics, cross-border labour reporting is almost entirely absent. We believe the decline is reversible, and not inevitable, and a concerted effort by Arena, alongside dedicated partners, is warranted to catalyse this process.
The future of the Arena Labour Network
Cross-border collaborative investigations, including successful examples from Arena’s other networks, offer a proven way to produce labour reporting with depth and impact. Arena already hosts a Labour Network, a continent-wide collective of labour journalists and experts who connect via a Signal group to share knowledge and experiences, keep each other up to date on the latest developments in the field and develop project ideas for cross-border investigations into European labour issues.
Our long term vision for the network is to sustainably support a wider range of activities that result in a greater number of cross-border publications. We envision:
- Cross-border collaborative investigations: a proven model, based on Arena’s other networks and the hundreds of journalists we’ve supported to publication across Europe;
- Training and fellowships: lowering the barrier of specialist knowledge;
- Accessible resources for practitioners;
- Stronger ties between journalists and scholars/researchers.
Building a well-resourced Arena Labour Network would result in original investigations, building editorial confidence for other projects to flourish, and ultimately keeping the beat alive via major projects that clarify and reinstate a strong presence for labour journalism.
Putting labour back on the agenda is essential to strengthening European democracy from the ground up. We are actively working to find partners to better resource the network. We invite you to read the paper, share it, and get in touch with Helena Soares, Arena’s Senior Development Officer, if you are interested in discussing the future of European labour journalism.
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‘The invisibles’ is authored by Arena’s Director, Brigitte Alfter and freelance journalist Jose Miguel Calatayud, and edited by Arena’s Academy Co-ordinator Hazel Sheffield. Written by and for journalism practitioners, the Arena Papers series aims to foster discussion and development in the field of in-depth, collaborative, and investigative journalism. The first five papers, which cover themes such as experimentation in collaborative journalism, cross-border skills, and the role of editorial co-ordinator, are available to download for free on the Papers homepage.