Implementation of sustainable development goal 8 in European Union countries–A measurement concept and a multivariate comparative analysis

The study attempts to determine a synthetic measure of the level of implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 8 related to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all and conducts a multivariate comparative analysis of EU countries in terms of its implementation. The statistical database contained all 9 variables characterising this goal, collected for 27 EU countries in the period from 2015 to 2020. The research method used was the method of unitarisation zeroed in the dynamic version. The results of the conducted research confirm that there have been positive changes in the implementation of SDG 8 sustainable development in most EU countries in the examined years. This is indicated by the increasing values of the calculated synthetic measure for individual EU27 countries in the examined years. However, in the last examined year, i.e. 2020, the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID 19 pandemic on the achievement of the examined Sustainable Development Goal was observed. In 2020, compared to 2015, 12 EU countries advanced their positions in the EU27 ranking, 3 countries did not change their positions, while 12 countries dropped down in the ranking. The study also assesses two selected EU countries, namely the Czech Republic and Poland (The Czech Republic and Poland are the countries of origin of the authors of this article, with a similar history, located in Central and Eastern Europe and with similar problems of socio‐economic development. These countries also joined the European Union in the same year, 2004) in terms of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8.