Sustainable Growth and Full Employment: Cluster Analysis of EU Member States

Generating sustainable growth at full employment, without disrupting the planetary resource balance, is a key goal of modern economic development. Despite the efforts made for unification of the standard of living of the population, there is a significant difference in economic progress between EU member states, especially in terms of labour productivity. The latter is also related to the uneven implementation of the sustainability criteria set out in the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations (UN). In addition, the emerging crises and imbalances indicate serious challenges for the European economy, which in turn distance countries from the possibility of achieving sustainable development. The aim of the article is to group EU member states into homogeneous clusters based on eight indicators measuring progress under Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals and on this basis to highlight the similarities and differences in the policies implemented to achieve sustainable growth and full employment, as part of the completion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.