[Excerpt] During 2016, employment in the EU finally returned to the same level as before the global financial crisis. The recovery that began in 2013 has resulted in the net creation of eight million new jobs. Most of this net new employment has been created in services, but there has also been a marked rebound in manufacturing employment, with around 1.5 million new jobs. This, the sixth annual European Jobs Monitor report, looks in more detail at recent shifts (from the second quarter (Q2) of 2011 to 2016 Q2) in employment at Member State and aggregate EU levels. Part 1 of the report applies a ‘jobs-based approach’ to describe employment shifts quantitatively (how many jobs were created or destroyed and in what sectors) and qualitatively (what kinds of jobs they were, primarily in terms of average hourly pay). Part 2, a more analytical section, discusses the role that occupations play in structuring European wage inequality, and to what extent the observed patterns of job polarisation and upgrading have contributed to wage inequality trends in the last decade.