European Working Conditions Survey 2024

The overall picture confirms that the job quality dimensions and their interplay are strongly related to workers’ well-being, health and engagement, reaffirming the importance of job quality in supporting a sustainable working life.

• Growing workforce: The EU workforce continues to grow despite demographic challenges, with the increasing participation of women, migrant workers and pre-retirement-age workers contributing to the growth of aggregate employment.

• Health: Four fifths of the EU workforce is in good or very good health, with 18% of workers reporting health problems that limit their ability to do normal activities.

• Gender balance: Only one in four workers (23%) in the EU work in a gender-balanced workplace, while roughly half of the workforce is female. Many ‘newer’ Member States, such as the Baltic countries, are leading the way towards a more gender-balanced workforce, also reflected in a higher share of female managers.

• Use of AI: AI and other digital technologies are more likely to create new tasks than remove existing ones: 40% of workers report that technology has added tasks to their role, while it has removed tasks for 30% of workers.

• Employee representation: One fifth of employees in the EU (21%) have neither formal representation nor meetings at the workplace where they can express their views.

• Competitiveness: The EWCS confirms the positive association of some of the job quality indices with engagement, motivation, trust and cooperation, and the negative association with employees’ intention to quit their job. This confirms the importance of job quality for companies’ competitiveness.

• Physical environment: The general improvement in the physical environment at work is due to a reduction in most physical risks and demands. However, exposure to high temperatures, chemicals and infectious materials has increased. Prolonged sitting is also a significant health concern.

• Working time: Most workers in the EU (56%) report that they would like to work the same number of hours that they are currently working, but 33% would prefer to work fewer hours. Around 1 in 5 respondents aged 45 years or over would like to work ‘as long as possible’; 1 in 10 would like to retire ‘as early as possible’.

• Work satisfaction: For most workers, their job is meaningful. More than 80% of workers find their work useful and experience the feeling of work being well done.