Comparing working conditions across sectors in Europe

Background

Many interventions to improve working conditions and job quality are organised and implemented at sectoral level. To support this process and provide appropriate knowledge to meet the needs of policymakers, Eurofound has produced a secondary statistical analysis of the fifth European Working Conditions Survey. The sectors have been categorised with a view to optimise correspondence between the statistical categories by which the data are organised (NACE Rev. 2) and the structure of European sectoral social dialogue committees. The aim is to reflect the reality of bargaining between sectoral social partners on the European and national level as closely as possible.

The report and related sectoral information sheets aim to capture the diversity prevalent across sectors in Europe in terms of working conditions and job quality. The report pinpoints trends across sectors in areas such as working time and work–life balance, work organisation, skills and training, employee representation and the psychosocial and physical environment. It identifies sectors that score particularly well or particularly poorly in terms of job quality and sheds light on differences between sectors in terms of health and well-being. 

The information sheets show how each sector compares to the European average, as well as patterns in the differences and similarities of groups of workers within the sector. In all, 33 sectoral information sheets have been produced and are presented below.

Sectoral information sheets

Authors

Arianna Tassinari; Josep Espasa Reig; Gijs van Houten; Jorge Cabrita; Oscar Vargas