Rise in stress at work in Finland

The Finnish Ministry of Labour has published its annual Working Life Barometer for 2003. The results show a slight increase in work-related stress and overtime compared to the previous year. Also, there has been a slight rise in the threat of lay-offs. This means that expectations among the workforce for the coming year have remained cautious, as in previous years.

Since the late 1990s, the rise in psychological stress at work had slowed down. However, in 2003, it started to increase again compared to previous years. This is one of the findings of the Finnish Ministry of Labour’s annual Working Life Barometer for 2003. The same trend is to be seen in rates of overtime. The largest amount of overtime was done in local authorities and in the private service sector, where more than half of the employees had worked overtime during the previous two months. Furthermore, more than half (54%) of all employees are of the opinion that there are too few workers in their workplace to carry the workload. This percentage has seen a slight increase during the year.

Attendance and employment levels

Among all wage and salary earners, 41% have not been absent from work even one day due to illness during the last 12 months. The attendance levels were highest in manufacturing and in government positions, and lowest in local authorities. In the age group over 54 years, 52% had not been absent from their work for even one day during the last 12 months, compared with a figure of 32% in the 35-44 age group.

The threat of lay-offs has increased very slightly: 2% of all wage and salary earners are certain that they will be made redundant during the coming year, while 8% consider it possible that they will receive notice. The majority of these are working in the private sector. In general, fewer new workers have been recruited than before. The numbers of new temporary and fixed-term workers in particular have dropped.

Training

The proportion of those participating in on-the-job training has remained almost the same for the past number of years. However, the number of training days has increased, especially among men and those in government jobs. In 2002, men had an average of 6.3 training days paid by the employer; in 2003, this figure had risen to 7.4 training days per year. In the government sector, the figure has increased from 10.2 training days per year in 2002 to an average of 11.9 days in 2003.

Different training programmes on productivity or quality of services are very common in Finland; 44% of employees reported them taking place in their workplaces in 2003. Nonetheless, the number of such programmes has decreased each year since 1999. In contrast, programmes focusing on the improvement of health, competence or occupational safety are clearly on the increase. In 2003, 62% of employees observed activity on health, and 75% on competence or occupational safety.

Cautious expectations

The expectations of wage and salary earners for the coming year have remained cautious, as they did in the previous two years 2001-2002. Equal numbers of workers anticipate a rise in employment levels as anticipate a decrease. In general, workers believe that economic conditions in their own workplace will be better than conditions for employment overall: 25% forecast an improvement in their company’s economic situation, while 20% believe it will deteriorate.

The working life barometer has monitored working conditions each year since 1992. The information for 2003 is based on telephone interviews with 1,254 wage and salary earners at work during September-October. The data have been compiled by Statistics Finland. The response rate was high, at 88%. The sampling data can be generalised to apply to all wage and salary earners. The information of earlier years is comparable with the information for 2003.