Trends in job quality

Progress over time

Physical environment quality has been slowly improving since 2010 for both men and women (Figure 1). The quality of the physical environment remains higher for women than for men, but the gender gap has decreased from 6 points down to 4.8, acknowledging faster progress for men than for women in this dimension.

The improvement is due to a reduction in exposure to most physical risks and demands for which trends are available. The exceptions are exposure to high temperatures and handling or being in skin contact with chemical products or substances, which have increased.

Differences in exposure to physical risks and demands

Exposure to physical risks is related to specific conditions in different activities in the economy and occur in the context of gender-segregated occupations.

• Men are most exposed to vibrations, chemicals, noise, high and low temperatures, carrying and moving heavy loads, breathing in smoke, breathing in solvents and repetitive arm movements.

• Women are most exposed to lifting or moving people, sedentary sitting and infectious diseases.

Men and women report similar levels of exposure to tiring or painful positions. The figure below shows the breakdown of physical risks and demands.

Exposure to multiple physical risks and demands is likely to increase the negative impact on health. In this context, the situation of craft workers, skilled agricultural workers, and plant and machine operators is of particular concern, as they accumulate exposure to most physical risks and physical demands.

• Service and sales workers report higher exposure to high temperatures, painful positions, carrying and moving heavy loads, and repetitive movements.

• Technicians, professionals (e.g. scientists, doctors, teachers), clerks and managers are most exposed to sedentary sitting.

Progress over time

The social environment index score increased by only one point between 2010 and 2015; it subsequently remained stable through 2024 (Figure 6). The existing gender gap increased between 2015 and 2024, with women's scores consistently lower than men's, primarily due to their greater exposure to adverse social behaviour.

Adverse social behaviour

Adverse social behaviour in the workplace affects the quality of the social climate, with well-documented negative consequences for both individuals and organisations. In each edition of the survey, the EWCS asks workers about their experiences with various forms of adverse social behaviour.

Although the prevalence of most adverse social behaviours in the EU is relatively low, and rates for most behaviours have remained relatively stable over the past three survey editions, the persistently higher prevalence of verbal abuse and humiliating behaviours is a concern (Figure 7).

There is a sectoral dimension: workers in the public sector are disproportionately exposed to adverse social behaviours, probably due to the high levels of with the public in public sector employment. For instance, verbal abuse is most prevalent in public administration (17%), followed closely by the health and education sectors (both 15 %). These sectors also exhibit the highest rates of humiliating behaviours, with 10 % reported in the health sector and 9 % in the education sector.

Women, whose employment tends to be concentrated in client-facing sectors, are more likely than men to report exposure to most adverse social behaviour. The only exceptions to this trend are physical violence and threats, where no gender differences are observed.

Although the survey did not ask workers about the source of these behaviours (i.e. whether they came from co-workers, supervisors or third parties) it did include a question about how often their main job involved direct interaction with individuals who are not employees, such as customers, passengers, pupils or patients. This may offer some insight into the prevalence of adverse social behaviour originating from third parties.

Having to deal with customers for a quarter or more of their working time increases the likelihood of workers experiencing adverse social behaviour, compared to those who rarely or never deal with customers (Figure 8). This is particularly true in the case of exposure to verbal abuse, threats and physical violence and to a lesser extent, humiliating behaviours, bullying/harassment and unwanted sexual attention

Social support from colleagues and managers

Social support remains high. 73 % of both female and male employees report getting support always or most of the time from their colleagues; 64 % of men and 65 % of women report getting support from managers.

Social support from colleagues is greater than that from managers: while 8 % of employees report that they rarely or never receive support from colleagues, the proportion rises to 16 % for those who rarely or never receive support from managers.

However, there are sectoral differences. The highest proportion of workers who report that they rarely or never receive support from either managers or colleagues work in the transport sector (Figure 9). This reduced access to an important job resource may exacerbate the high job demands already experienced by workers in this sector, such as high levels of work intensity, potentially further compromising workers well-being.

Progress over time

 The working time quality index has been increasing over the last two decades for both women and men, with the latter catching up with their female counterparts in 2024 (Figure 10).

This is the result of positive developments in most of the indicators of working time quality, including in terms of duration, atypical working hours and working time arrangements. The shares of workers reporting that they work over the weekend or at night has been decreasing over the last two decades. The share of those doing shift work remained stable.

Progress over time

The score for work intensity has decreased slightly over the last three survey editions, indicating an intensification of work (Figure 13). Where previously men were somewhat more likely to report higher levels of work intensity, in 2024 it was women (lower scores on this index being less favourable).

Work intensity across sectors

The transport sector has the highest proportion of workers who report working to tight deadlines and at high speed around three-quarters of the time or more often. When it comes to other quantitative demands, workers in the education sector are most likely to report never or rarely having enough time to get the job done, whereas frequent disruptive interruptions are more prevalent in the healthcare sector (Figure 14).

Having three or more pace determinants is more pronounced in industry, where the main determinant of work pace is the speed of automatic systems or machines. Other sectors with a high proportion of workers reporting three or more pace determinants include financial services and commerce and hospitality.

The healthcare sector exhibits the highest levels of emotional demands, largely due to the frequent interactions with the public. This is also the sector that stands out as having the highest percentage of workers subjected to most forms of adverse social behaviour. Healthcare workers are also more likely to report hiding their feelings, dealing with angry clients and being in emotionally disturbing situations.

Work intensity through a gender lens

In terms of quantitative demands, women are more likely than men to work at high speed for three quarters of the time or more and experience frequent and disruptive interruptions. Only a marginally higher proportion of women than men report rarely or never having enough time to do their job (Figure 15).

Consistent with previous survey editions, women face higher emotional demands at work compared to men, which is partly due to their overrepresentation in customer-facing professions such as healthcare and education, where there is more interaction with the public.

Progress over time

The skills and discretion index shows clear improvements since 2010 (Figure 16). Men continue to achieve higher scores than women but by 2024 the gender gap had been reduced by one point.

These improvements hide some concerning developments for a number of items. While the use of skills, opportunities to develop skills and access to training have improved, the ability of workers to influence collective work processes through consultation, their involvement in measures that support the improvement of work processes and their ability to apply their own ideas in their work have decreased for both men and women.

Training

The survey captures training paid for or provided by employers over the previous 12 months, training paid for by a self-employed person for themselves, and on-the-job training.

Close to half of employees (48 %) and 31 % of self-employed people (who paid for it themselves) had training in the previous year. On-the-job training remains widespread: 46 % of workers could avail of it. Despite progress over time, 11 % of employees (same proportion of men and women) report having asked for training but not having been granted it.

Access to training has been increasing over time but inequalities remain in occupational and age groups. Clerks, professionals and managers report more frequently receiving training paid for by their employer. Older workers (aged 55 or more) report less access to training than their younger colleagues.

Differences also exist with regard to sectors. Around 6 out of 10 employees received training paid for by their employer in health (57 %), public administration (63 %) and financial services (64 %). Interestingly, unmet training needs are also highest in health, public administration and financial services: 16 % in all three sectors.

Cognitive demands at work

This sub-dimension measures how workers are being challenged in their tasks and how they can develop their skills while working. While, overall, 76 % of workers report opportunities to learn new things, only 44 % of workers report having enough opportunities to use their skills and knowledge in their work (Figure 17).

Organisational participation

There are important differences between sectors in this sub-dimension. Close to 50 % of employees in financial services, education, public administration and other services report being consulted and involved in improving the work organisation or work processes (‘always’ and ‘most of the time’). In contrast, 30 % or fewer of employees in agriculture, commerce and transport have these opportunities. As regards the opportunity to influence decisions that are important for their work, around half of employees in agriculture, construction, financial services and other services report being able to do so ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’. This opportunity is least frequent for employees in transport (Figure 18).

Progress over time

Two of the items in the prospects index that can be used to examine trends over time are career prospects and job security (which addresses fear of job loss).

In the context of a much-improved labour market, the Prospects index has improved significantly since 2010 for both men and women. However, the gender gap has increased since 2015 (Figure 19).

Career prospects

In 2024, 49 % of male workers and 43 % of female workers (strongly) tended to agree that their job offers good prospects for career advancement. This constitutes a 15 percentage point increase since 2010 for both men and women, with the gender gap remaining at 6 percentage points (Figure 20).

There are important differences by occupation, with better career prospects reported by those in higher-skilled occupations: 61 % of managers and 56 % of professionals and technicians report good career prospects.

However, this is the case for only 23 % of elementary workers. Prospects are highest for workers in finance (63 %) and public administration (56 %) and lowest in agriculture (32 %), education (36 %) and transport (40 %). Figure 21 shows the breakdown by occupation and gender.

Measuring earnings from work

The EWCS includes a series of questions on earnings. The main question focuses on the net monthly earnings from a person’s main paid job, referring to their average earnings in recent months. For respondents who are unable to give an exact figure of their monthly net earnings, a range of earnings bands are presented from which they are asked to choose. Typically, survey respondents are not very open in disclosing their earnings (around 17 % of respondents to the EWCS 2024 refused to provide such information), which may compromise the robustness of the indicator. Calculating a standardised index entails several complex steps, which are being taken at the time of writing. The following first findings will focus on the predictability of earnings and the efforts–reward imbalance.

Predictability of earnings

The 2024 survey asked workers if they can tell in advance how much they are going to earn in the next three months. The majority – 6 out of every 10 – replied that they can tell quite accurately in advance how much they will earn. A further 25 % said they can predict their earnings in advance but only approximately. The remaining 15 % replied that they cannot tell how much they will earn.

Uncertainty about earnings is reported by relatively more male workers (17 %) than their female counterparts (13 %) and is particularly prominent among young male workers: 26 % and 21 % of male and female workers, respectively, under the age of 24 report that they cannot tell how much they will earn in the upcoming months.

As shown in Figure 23, earnings uncertainty varies greatly across countries. In countries such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the vast majority of workers (more than 70 %) know quite accurately how much they will earn in the coming months and fewer than 10 % report uncertainty. On the other hand, in countries such as Romania, Greece and Albania, more than 25 % of workers report not knowing how much they will earn, and less than half know accurately how much they are going to earn.

Unpredictability of earnings from work is greater for self-employed workers, especially if they are own-account workers, and also for employees with non-permanent types of employment contract or no contract at all. In contrast, only a relatively small share of employees with indefinite (permanent) contracts report not knowing how much they are going to earn. Unpredictability of earnings is more prominent among workers in agriculture (49 %) and construction (25 %), and less so in education (6 %) and public administration (4 %).

Fair pay: Effort–reward imbalance

The absolute level of earnings from work are of great importance for workers but so too is the extent to which monetary rewards are perceived to be fair. Important detrimental implications for health (including stress and increased risk of physical and mental health problems) occur if workers do not perceive that the level of rewards (comprising earnings from work, recognition and career advancement) is proportional to the efforts they devote to work – designated as effort–reward imbalance.

Figure 24 shows that the shares of female and male workers disagreeing that they feel they get appropriately paid have been decreasing since 2005. However, the gender gap, with a larger share of female workers disagreeing that they are paid appropriately, persists: in 2024, 30 % of female workers and 24 % of male workers reported an effort–reward imbalance.