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Working conditions and sustainable work

Working conditions and sustainable work is one of Eurofound's main operational activities for its 2025–2028 programme. Building on the past 50 years of research, Eurofound continues to operate as a centre of expertise for monitoring and analysing developments in this area arising from the opportunities and challenges from four mega-drivers: demographic change, climate change, technological change and re-globalisation.

Drawing on its latest survey data, Eurofound provides comparative data and unique insights into trends in the development of working conditions and job quality across the EU Member States, aiming to promote sustainability of work over the life course in a labour market characterised by transformative changes.

Topic

Recent updates

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This episode examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation. The discussion assesses how artificial intelligence and digitalisation are reshaping employment, drawing...

Podcast
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As the continent's birth rates decline and its population ages, policymakers face the urgent task of retaining experienced workers and adapting workplaces to meet the needs of an older demographic.

Blog
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Living and working in Europe 2024 provides a snapshot of Eurofound’s key research findings on the changing nature of work and life across the EU. Labour and skills shortages continued...

8 Květen 2025
Publication
Annual report

Eurofound research 2025

During 2025, analysing the data collected in 2024 by the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) is the main focus in the area of working conditions and sustainable work.

The high-quality EWCS 2024 data form the starting point for investigating – from the perspective of working conditions and job quality – the challenges arising from the combined impact of the four mega-drivers. This work is complemented by evidence on measures designed to address these challenges and improve working conditions. Such measures stem from public policies and legislation, the intervention of the social partners and practices at workplace level.

Topics of research include:

  • Hybrid work: The hybrid workplace in the post-COVID-19 era and the challenges it poses for managers
  • Working time: Developments in the aftermath of the pandemic
  • Digital transition, job quality and workplace practices, including workers’ involvement in SMEs
  • Vulnerable workers: Addressing the employment and working conditions of this group
  • Platform work: Working conditions of online platform workers
  • Telework and remote work: Impact on labour market access and on working conditions
  • Artificial intelligence: Investigating the implications of AI and AI-enabling technologies for work organisation, employment, working conditions and social dialogue
  • New forms of work: Impact of digitalisation on labour market trends and working conditions
  • Sectoral and occupational change: Assessing the impact of the mega-drivers in selected sectors
  • Caring for care services: Looking at working conditions and job quality in care services

The EWCS 2024 analysis explores the multiple dimensions of job quality and compares the situation in the Member States for different sectors, occupations and age groups and by gender.

What our experts say

 Barbara Gerstenberger, Head of the Working Life Unit

Listen to our podcasts on issues around working conditions and sustainable work

Eurofound Talks - A podcast series

Linking in with EU priorities

2025 marks the first year of the five-year period of the EU policy and legislative cycle for 2025–2029. Eurofound's work plan is aligned with the EU’s political guidelines over the next four years, directly feeding into a number of key policy areas aimed at improving job quality and creating inclusive labour markets.

Preserving and creating new jobs remains a priority for the EU. Eurofound’s EWCS 2024 provides comparative data on and unique insights into trends in the development of working conditions and job quality across the EU. This research helps policymakers to deliver on the promise of leaving no one behind when it comes to equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions, and social protection and inclusion.

Analysis of working conditions in specific sectors, such as the care sector or sectors and occupations particularly affected by the twin transition, aims to assist decision-makers, including company-level actors, to take job quality into account when addressing labour shortages and changing skills requirements.

Evidence on the working conditions of workers in new forms of work aims to assist policymakers in understanding the specifics of this issue and offer recommendations for appropriate solutions for instance regarding working time regulation, remote work or the right to disconnect.

Research on the impact of technological change, and specifically the use of AI in the workplace, provides evidence to inform initiatives to regulate the use of AI in the workplace.

Eurofound’s work also informs policies that strive to reduce inequalities between and within countries, regions and local areas with the aim of fostering upward convergence.

Key outputs

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Living and working in Europe 2024 provides a snapshot of Eurofound’s key research findings on the changing nature of work and life across the EU. Labour and skills shortages continued...

8 Květen 2025
Publication
Annual report
Publications results (573)

The debate about the posting of workers in the EU, its economic and social consequences, and ways to manage it is hampered by the fact that reliable, comparable data on the phenomenon are lacking. Accurate statistics on the number of posted workers, their characteristics and working conditions are s

20 January 2020

Advances in ICT have opened the door to new ways of organising work. We are shifting from a regular, bureaucratic and ‘factory-based’ working time pattern towards a more flexible model of work. Telework and ICT-based mobile work (TICTM) has emerged in this transition, giving workers and employers th

16 January 2020

Casual work, both intermittent and on-call, contributes to labour market flexibility and is therefore increasingly used across Europe. In some countries, practices go beyond the use of casual employment contracts to include other types of contracts and forms of self-employment.

20 December 2019

Social convergence has gained an equal footing alongside economic convergence as an EU goal in the wake of the economic crisis. This report presents the results of a study into convergence in working conditions, a major component of social policymaking. It examines whether working conditions have

12 December 2019

Employment statistics consistently show that having a foreign background has an influence on people’s employment prospects. Less is known about the types of jobs workers with foreign backgrounds hold and their working conditions. This policy brief contributes to filling this gap.

27 November 2019

The number of workers living with chronic health conditions is rising in the EU. Such conditions affect people’s ability to work to varying degrees. While some are unable to continue working, many wish to and would be able to do so if their workplace made adaptations to accommodate their needs.

15 October 2019

This biennial review charts developments in a range of working time issues in the EU and Norway in 2017–2018. It finds that while the average collectively agreed working week across the EU remains unchanged since 2016 – at 38 hours – there was a slight decrease in the past two years in the 15 Member

03 October 2019

This report – the latest in an annual series – describes the main developments in industrial relations and the regulations affecting working conditions at EU level and in the EU Member States and Norway during 2018. Based on data from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, it presents information

02 October 2019

Upward convergence is a process whereby the performance of EU Member States in a given domain or range of domains is seen to improve while gaps between Member States reduce. Achieving upward convergence is of crucial importance to the EU, as the increase of disparities among Member States threatens

25 September 2019

Platform work emerged onto European labour markets about a decade ago. While still small in scale, it is growing and evolving into a variety of forms. Different types of platform work have significantly different effects on the employment and working conditions of the affiliated workers.

23 September 2019

Online resources results (1781)

This episode examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation. The discussion assesses how artificial intelligence and digitalisation are reshaping employment, drawing parallels with historical industrial shifts, while ack

30 Červen 2025

Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound researchers Agnès Parent-Thirion, Tina Weber and Jorge Cabrita about how climate change is influencing working conditions and the labour market in Europe, the role of the green transition, and how policy can help protect workers and safeguard workplaces.

16 Říjen 2024

Human–robot interaction: What changes in the workplace?

Explore our digital report summary. Understanding how workers and robots interact and the implications for work organisation and working conditions is crucial for robots’ successful integration into the workplace.

In this episode of Eurofound Talks Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound Research Manager Tina Weber about new research on the right to disconnect, the evolution of the right to disconnect in Europe, the reasons why legislative and procedural actions are being called for, the impacts that effective

15 Duben 2024

Flexible work increases post-pandemic, but not for everyone

Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, various forms of flexible work, such as teleworking and flexitime, were in place across EU Member States. However, the pandemic led to a surge in flexible working practices with many workers wanting to focus on their work–life balance and have more time for

Eurofound presentation to the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director, Eurofound, 24 January 2023.

23 Leden 2023

The rise in cost of living and energy poverty: Social impact and policy responses. 14 October 2022, Informal Meeting of Employment and Social Affairs Ministers (EPSCO). Presentation by Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director, Eurofound.

14 Říjen 2022
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COVID-19 in the workplace: Employer’s responsibility to ensure a safe workplace

Throughout 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, specific occupational health and safety rules were reintroduced due to increases in infection rates. Mandatory face masks, physical distancing and hygiene measures were enforced, and the recommendation to telework was largely re-instated in

Female teleworker taking notes during video conference on her laptop

Workers want to telework but long working hours, isolation and inadequate equipment must be tackled

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a surge in telework, with dramatic increases in the number of employees working from home (teleworking) in many European countries. What for many employees started out as a mandatory move seems to have transformed into a preference among the majority for part-time or


Blogs results (62)
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More than one in 10 employees in the EU are employed on temporary contracts, but a majority of them would prefer a permanent contract. Temporary contracts help employers to manage their labour demand, but there are downsides for employees, such as job insecurity and lower pay.

19 Únor 2016
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The latest research from Eurofound on working conditions in Europe highlights that the 9-to-5 day is not the norm for many workers, and work commonly spills over into home life. Such patterns make it difficult to balance work and life outside work.

25 Listopad 2015

Upcoming publications results (5)

The overview report of the European Working Conditions Survey 2024 ( EWCS24) provides a comprehensive description of the workforce, and includes information on digital work practices, social relations at work and inclusive workplaces. It evaluates job quality across seven dimensions: earnings,

March 2026

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to hybrid work, where employees split their time between working from home and on-site. While this model offers increased flexibility, it also introduces unique challenges for managers requiring innovative approaches to leadership, communication,

March 2026

This policy brief investigates how organisations are adapting their work organisation and practices to hybrid work. Based on case studies and on data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2024, the policy brief examines how hybrid work is being managed in organisations and profiles t

December 2025

Over the past decade, platform work has grown significantly in the EU, both in terms of the number of workers involved and the variety of services available to customers. Despite this expansion, significant evidence gaps remain, particularly regarding the profiles and working conditions of workers

November 2025
Forthcoming
Publication
Research report

The first findings from the European Working Conditions Survey 2024 (EWCS24) provide information on changes over time in the seven domains of job quality and key indicators on the quality of working life and sustainable work. They also include information on algorithmic management, hybrid work,

September 2025
Data results (1)

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