Sixth European Working Conditions Survey: 2015

Overall, the survey finds, structural inequalities and differences in terms of gender, employment status and occupation are still significant.  In the last 10 years, there has been limited progress in some aspects of job quality.

Going beyond the objective measures of job quality, the report also looks at workers’ own assessment of their working lives. It finds associations between the different dimensions of job quality and factors such as engagement, financial security, the development of skills and competences, health and well-being, the reconciliation of work and private life, and the sustainability of work.

This sixth survey is an important landmark for Eurofound: it builds on the lessons learned from the previous five surveys and provides a rich portrait of workplace trends in Europe over the last 25 years. Moreover, involving 35 countries, the sixth survey is the most comprehensive to date, in terms of the number of countries covered.

• The first survey, in 1991, covered just 12 countries.
• The second survey, in 1995, covered 15 countries.
• The third survey (2000) covered 16 countries (the EU15 and Norway). This third survey was then extended in 2001 to cover the 10 EU candidate countries.
• The fourth survey, in 2005, covered the 25 EU Member States and the two countries that would join in 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania). Also covered were Croatia, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway (31 countries in total).
• The fifth survey, in 2010, covered the 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey and Norway (Switzerland was not included). Also covered in this survey were Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – a total of 34 countries.
• The sixth survey, in 2015, covered the 28 EU Member States, the five EU candidate countries (Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey), as well as Switzerland and Norway.

Eurofound’s survey partners, Ipsos NV, interviewed working people randomly selected from a statistical sample, comprising a cross-section of society. Depending on country size and national arrangements, the sample ranged from 1,000 to 3,300 people per country.
The face-to-face interviews were carried out in peoples’ homes and covered a comprehensive list of questions regarding their working conditions. (All the information gathered has been treated in the strictest confidentiality and the anonymity of each interviewee guaranteed). Full details of the survey methodology are available online.

The sixth EWCS microdata is now available. Eurofound’s secondary analyses of the survey data will be published from 2017. These will examine such issues as working time, self-employed, ageing, employee engagement and development, work and health, employment status and working conditions.

For further information about the European Working Conditions Surveys, contact Sophia MacGoris.