Europe’s workers value safety, trust, and well-being above pay, according to the first findings of the flagship 2024 pan-European Working Conditions Survey. New findings reveal an overall upward trend in job quality but also expose a workforce grappling with new and persistent health challenges and divergent attitudes to the technological change.
Results from Eurofound’s pan-European flagship survey reveal significant improvements in job quality over the past decade but highlight stark inequalities between women and men, as well as radically different situations for workers in different parts of Europe.
The latest Eurofound Talks podcast episode delves into the evolution of working conditions over the past three decades, as Europe stands at the precipice of an AI-driven revolution in its labour markets.
How can Europe adapt to an ageing workforce? What impediments do older workers face at the workplace? How are changing technologies and job quality influencing the retention of older workers on the labour market? A new episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast series sets out to answer these questions in the context of changing demographics in Europe and the need to make work more sustainable.
With Europe’s old-age dependency ratio projected to increase to 52% in 2050, supporting older workers to stay in the workforce for longer is now an economic necessity, according to new research from the EU’s social and employment agency.
A new episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast series looks at data from the Living and working in the EU e-survey showing a decline in the number of respondents engaged in remote work, with the percentage of people working entirely from the workplace increasing from 36% in 2023, to 41% in 2024.
Despite expectations that remote work or hybrid work would become a long-term norm following the pandemic, findings from Eurofound’s 2024 e-survey indicate a decline in remote work since 2023.
In a new episode of Eurofound Talks, Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Senior Research Manager Sara Riso about what constitutes cyberbullying, how widespread the issue of cyberbullying at work is, and whether there is sufficient legislation and workplace rules to address it effectively.
Prolonged labour shortages in the EU affect growth, innovation and the bloc’s ability to achieve its digital and green targets, as around 80% of EU employers struggle to recruit workers with the right skills. Currently, the skills of one in three employees in the EU are mismatched with their job, with 17% overqualified and 13% underqualified.
The proportion of self-employed workers in the EU has not increased over the past two and a half decades, and fell from 15.4% to 13.7% between 2010 and 2022. This reduction was primarily driven by falling self-employment among men and the imbalance between labour market exits among older self-employed workers and the creation of new self-employment.
Over 80% of workers in a Eurofound-commissioned survey of employees in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain report receiving work-related communications outside their contractual working hours during a typical working week.
In the latest episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Senior Research Manager John Hurley about new research which shows a marginal increase in net employment from EU decarbonisation measures, but also potentially broad shifts in the labour market that could have a profound impact in several areas.
Workers in Member States that joined the European Union after 2004 have, on average, longer normal annual working time. Workers in these countries also generally have a lower amount of statutory minimum days of leave.
The jury is still out on the question whether men and women are from distinct planets. When it comes to the world of work, however, the evidence shows that they are worlds apart.
The working conditions of Europe’s essential workers is the focus of the new episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast.
Poor job quality, including high emotional demand, working at high speed and to tight deadlines, is widespread among several of the sectors and professions deemed essential, key or critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skills, skills, skills! Skills for people, skills for competitiveness, skills for sustainability, an event on 20 September with the five social EU Agencies in collaboration with the European Parliament and the European Commission will explore skills needs in the EU.
Eurofound has just published a new episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast on skills in Europe. In the episode Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Research Manager Tina Weber, Eurofound Senior Research Manager Gijs van Houten, and Giovanni Russo, Senior Expert at CEDEFOP – the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.
Workers on non-permanent contracts and workers with no formal contract are less satisfied with the functioning of democracy in their country, as are workers experiencing job insecurity.
A new joint report by ECDC and Eurofound concludes that adult work-life balance was significantly affected by measures such as stay-at-home orders and recommendations, closures of day-care, primary and secondary schools and national teleworking recommendations implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
