Topics: Social conditions

  • Almost three quarter of people in Croatia are struggling financially during COVID-19 pandemic, but minimum wage increases slightly

    ​74% of people in Croatia report difficulties making ends meet, according to Eurofound’s large-scale ​Living, working and COVID-19 online survey​. This is the highest figure among EU Member States, where the average was 45.1%. For Croatia, this number remained consistently high throughout the pandemic at 73.5% in April 2020 reporting a difficult personal financial situation.

  • Vaccine acceptance hinges on transparent communication

    Vaccine acceptance is key to the success of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns worldwide. Worryingly, over a quarter of people living in Europe are hesitant about taking a COVID-19 vaccine, and the level of hesitancy is especially high among heavy users of social media.

  • Portugal records highest trust in the EU, among Member States

    The trust of people in Portugal in the European Union is the highest across all Member States, according to Eurofound’s large-scale Living, working and COVID-19 survey. With 5.9, it is significantly higher than the EU average at 4.6. Trust in the EU in Portugal has increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from 5.2 in April 2020 to 5.4 during the summer of last year to 5.9 in spring 2021.

  • Trust in national government has declined in Sweden throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

    Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, trust of people in Sweden in their national government has declined from 6.4 to 5.1. Respondents rated their trust levels at the onset of the pandemic (data collection April 2020) at 6.4 on average, which decreased to 5.5 during the summer months of last year and then to 5.1 in February and March of this year.

  • Denmark only EU country where trust in national government increased since summer 2020

    Trust in the national government in Denmark ranked highest among EU countries at 7 out of 10, according to Eurofound’s large-scale Living, working and COVID-19 online survey. This marked an increase of 0.5 points compared to the summer of last year. This pattern goes against the trend observed in all other EU Member States, where the average trust rating fell to just 3.9 from 4.6.

  • Reduced feeling of financial strain in Italy

    Pessimism about one’s future financial situation has decreased in Italy compared to summer 2020, according to Eurofound’s large-scale Living, working and COVID-19 online survey. In February 2021, over one fifth (22.5%) of people in Italy expected a worsening of their situation compared to 27.6% in June/July of last year.

  • Just 12% in EU feel pandemic support measures are fair

    Just 12% of people surveyed in the third round of Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 online survey believed the support measures rolled out to help deal with the implications of the pandemic were fair, with the same proportion believing that the measures reached those who needed them.

  • Choosing to challenge – the EU Gender Equality Strategy one year in

    ​This year’s theme to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March is Choose to Challenge (or #ChooseToChallenge, if you prefer). The idea is to highlight that ‘from challenge comes change’ and that ‘we can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality’.

  • Eurofound launches third round of its online survey Living, working and COVID-19

    Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 online survey aims to capture the far-reaching implications of the pandemic for the way people live and work across Europe. Two rounds of the online survey have been carried out to date. The third round is launched today, 15 February, and will be open until 29 March 2021.

  • Minimum wages in 2021: Most countries settle for cautious increase

    Nominal statutory minimum wages in most Member States and the UK continued to rise in 2021. With inflation being low, this has resulted in real increases for those minimum wage workers who have managed to retain their jobs and the same working hours.

  • Protecting access to healthcare during COVID-19 and beyond

    Healthcare providers have been overwhelmed by the demand for COVID-19-related care. Medical appointments and treatments for other conditions have often been delayed, potentially leading to escalating health problems and greater future care needs among those who have missed out. If the pandemic leads to an economic crash, this rise in unmet medical needs could spiral.

  • COVID-19, Big Brother and the business case for doing better

    In the most successful businesses, managers were found to facilitate employees to work independently rather than to focus on controlling whether they carried out their tasks. Closely monitoring employee behaviour might indeed ensure that workers do their job but is unlikely to motivate them to go beyond their job description.

  • New Chair of Eurofound’s Management Board

    Stefan Gran has been elected Chair of Eurofound’s Management Board during the third meeting of the Board on 6 November 2020. He takes over from outgoing chair Aviana Bulgarelli, Ministry of Labour and Social Policies (Ministero del Lavoro, della Salute), Italy.

  • Shaping the future of long-term care: A good outcome will benefit all

    An ageing Europe and rising public expenditure on long-term care have signalled for some time that the fundamentals of care provision need to be addressed. However, the shocking death toll in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many long-term care services were ill-equipped to protect their vulnerable users have lately focused the public mind on the issue.

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