Key messages

Digital technologies and climate change are transforming jobs and how work is organised. Their impact on working conditions is reshaping Europe’s labour market in multiple ways.

Better job quality benefits both workers and companies. It is linked to better health and well-being, higher motivation and stronger levels of engagement, and is essential to support competitiveness.

Despite overall improvements in job quality, the benefits are not shared evenly. Significant gaps persist in terms of gender, age, place of origin, health status, occupation and sector.

Men report higher job quality than women across five of the seven job quality dimensions. In some areas the gap is widening – work intensity is worsening for women while improving for men – highlighting the need for targeted policy attention.

Older workers, women, workers with chronic health problems and migrant workers account for an increasingly large share of the workforce. Faced with an ageing and shrinking workforce, good quality jobs will be critical in Europe to attract and retain a larger share of a more diverse population in work for longer.

Summary

The EU workforce continues to grow despite demographic challenges. The increasing participation of women and older workers has contributed to the growth in employment. Migrant labour has also boosted employment, as has the higher average skill level of the workforce.

With traditionally male-employing sectors such as construction, agriculture and industry reducing in size and many female-majority service sectors expanding, the gender employment gap has narrowed. However, gender occupational segregation still exists. Only one in four workers (23%) in the EU work in a gender-balanced workplace.

Over the past quarter-century, there has been limited progress towards gender balance at management level. Nearly two-thirds of EU workers have a male boss. Female managers are most common in female-dominated workplaces.

The share of workers living in households with children has stayed relatively stable at around 32%.

Some 80% of the workforce are in good or very good health, while 2.5% are in bad or very bad health. In terms of well-being, men at work have a higher score on the World Health Organization's WHO-5 Well-being Index (71) than women (68).

Around 12% of EU workers have a chronic illness that limits their ability to do normal activities. In addition, 5% said that, while not having a chronic illness, they had a health problem limiting their ability.

Nearly three quarters of the EU workforce work in service sectors. Professionals accounted for the largest and fastest-growing occupational group. The share of part-time workers has been stable, while the shares of those in temporary employment and self-employment have declined.

Summary

Technology

While women report a higher frequency of computer use, men are more likely to use emerging technologies like generative AI tools. The higher frequency of computer use among women is mainly related to the nature of occupations in which women are over-represented, such as clerical work. Older workers and those with lower levels of education are less likely to use such tools.

EWCS data show that technology is more likely to create new tasks than remove existing tasks. Workers are also more likely to report that technology facilitates increased interaction among colleagues.

Location

Combining different work locations is common among workers in the EU. Only 4 in 10 workers in the EU carry out work exclusively from one location. Almost 3 out of 10 employees telework from home, on a full-time, regular or occasional basis.

Half of workers who work at least sometimes from home do not have a dedicated room (alone or shared) in which to work.

Teamwork

Working in teams is widespread in the EU. In 2024, almost 6 in 10 workers (59%) reported working in teams that share common tasks and can plan their work, with men and women participating in teams to similar extents.

Employees in autonomous teams tend to exhibit a greater propensity for learning and development and for applying their own ideas. Teamwork also fosters a supportive work environment. Among the drawbacks are higher exposure to longer working days (especially among those working in multiple teams) and a higher work intensity in terms of pace determinants.

Health

Some 17% of employees with somewhat limiting conditions as a result of long-standing health issues and 23% of those with severely limiting conditions report that they need workplace accommodation but do not have it, whereas between 34% and 36% in each group report receiving accommodation, but only partially.

Nearly half of respondents report that their employers do not provide accommodation for women’s disruptive health issues (painful periods and menopause), while a large share of respondents (more than one third) report that they do not know whether or not their employers provide such accommodation. Full accommodation and partial accommodation by employers were reported by 20% and 15% of respondents, respectively.

Representation

In 2024, one fifth of employees in the EU (21%) had neither formal representation nor meetings at the workplace at which they could express their views. Another 11% report the existence of such meetings but no collective representation in their companies or organisations. 36% of employees say that both collective representation and meetings at which they can express their views exist in their workplace.

The share of workers with trade union, works council or similar employee representation at the workplace is above 80% in Norway and Sweden, but is only around 25% in Albania, Bulgaria and Estonia.

Some 85% of employees in large workplaces (over 250 employees) report the existence of a trade union, a works council or similar employee representation, compared with 25% in micro-workplaces (1–9 employees).

Summary

Job quality is measured at the level of the job. It is captured using seven job quality indices. These indices are positively associated with health and well-being, confirming their validity. They are empirically associated with engagement, motivation, trust and cooperation, work–life balance and financial sustainability, confirming the significance of job quality. Research highlights the positive role that job quality plays in quality of life, political participation and trust in democracy.

Job quality of different workers

On average, in the EU, men report higher job quality than women in all job quality dimensions with the exception of Working time quality and Physical environment.

Younger workers (under 30 years) score lower than older workers (30–64 years) on most job quality indices except Social environment, raising concerns about their future labour market participation.

The Prospects and Skills and discretion index scores of first-generation foreign-born workers are significantly lower than those of second-generation and native workers.

Job quality is lowest in very female-dominated occupations in all dimensions except Work intensity and Physical environment.

Occupations and sectors

There are important differences between occupations: managers, professionals and technicians have higher scores, on average, in the Earnings, Prospects, Skills and discretion, and Physical environment indices than workers in other occupations.

There are also significant differences in job quality between sectors. Workers in the transport sector experience the poorest job quality in four dimensions: Prospects, Working time quality, Skills and discretion, and Social environment.

Workers in occupations with labour shortages experience modest wage advantages but score persistently poorer on non-wage aspects of job quality, particularly those related to Working time, Work intensity, Skills and discretion, and Physical environment. To develop the attractiveness of these occupations (which include doctors, nurses, cooks and various trades workers), efforts should be made to improve the quality of the work in these occupations.

Country differences

There are significant differences in job quality between countries, which reflect different workforce compositions, institutional frameworks and regulations. The job quality gaps between Member States are particularly significant in relation to Skills and discretion, but also to Work intensity and Prospects.

Skills and employability

• In 2024, 13% of workers were underskilled and needed further training to cope well with their duties.
• Although most workers in the EU feel that it would be easy to find a similar job if they were to lose or quit their current job (58%), more than a quarter (28%) feel this would be rather unlikely. This figure is higher for those with a low level of education (34%).

Underskilled, overskilled or just the right level of skills?

The concept of the ‘skills match’ refers to the optimal alignment between a worker's potential and the specific requirements of a job role or task. A mismatch (being over- or underskilled) is associated with an inefficient use of human capabilities.

In 2024, the proportion of self-perceived underskilling in the EU was 13%, with almost no differences between men and women. It ranged from 2% in Portugal to 29% in Austria. Overskilling was reported by 30% of workers in the EU, with the proportion ranging from 18% in Malta to 44% in Romania.

Both under- and overskilling have implications for health

When workers’ skills are underutilised, they are unable to contribute their full potential and may not be fully engaged in their work. Conversely, when workers lack the necessary skills to perform their job effectively and this is not adequately addressed, their health is negatively affected.

Underskilled workers are more likely to report poor health, stress, negative health effects of their work and lower levels of mental well-being. However, overskilled workers also have worse health and well-being outcomes than those with the right skills for the job.

Should I stay or should I go?

74% of employees state that it is unlikely or very unlikely that they will leave their job during the next year.

Among younger workers (aged 16–29 years), 29% consider it likely that they will leave their job over the next year.

In terms of sectors, 25% of workers in elementary occupations and 21% of those working in commerce and hospitality state that it is likely they will leave their job over the next year.