Peycheva, Darina

Occupation is a critical factor in determining the type of working conditions a person will experience during their professional life. This report explores the working conditions of workers – particularly medium-to-low skilled and unskilled – in occupations that are found to have low levels of job quality as measured by four key indicators: earnings, prospects, working time and intrinsic job quality.

This report describes surveys in 15 EU Member States that meet two conditions: they are national, covering all or most of the working population; and they relate at least primarily to working conditions issues, such as health and safety at the workplace, work organisation, quality of working life and work–life balance. For each survey, a data sheet provides the main characteristics of the survey in a consistent template. These characteristics include the survey name, institute responsible, territorial scope, sectors and population covered, and sample size. Information is also provided on methodology, quality control procedures and contact details.

Job quality indexes are constructed on the basis of such aspects of working conditions as earnings, prospects, working time, and intrinsic job quality. Occupations where job quality is consistently low are labelled ‘occupations with multi...