Eurofound first launched its unique Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey at the outset of the pandemic in April 2020, a time when most Member States were introducing restrictive lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Running from 9 April to 11 June 2020, it attracted a large number of respondents, allowing for a timely and truly informative picture of the implications of COVID-19 on the living and working conditions of respondents across the EU.
In a time where data were unavailable, Eurofound launched this unique e-survey to provide crucial insights into the pandemic’s impact on people’s lives, helping policymakers understand where action was most needed to address living and working conditions. Remarkably successful during the initial lockdown period, this e-survey included all EU Member States allowing for comparisons between countries that were strongly affected by the pandemic and those less affected. As the survey collects information not only about the gender, age and education of respondents, but also about their employment situation, it was possible to examine how different socioeconomic groups were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey examines quality of life and quality of society during COVID-19, including life satisfaction, happiness and optimism, health and levels of trust in institutions. It covers people’s work situation, their work–life balance and the widespread use of teleworking during this crisis.
EU27 Member States.
In the summer of 2020, Eurofound carried out a second round of its unique Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, three months after the first e-survey when society and economies in most Member States were slowly reopening. Running from 22 June to 27 July 2020, the e-survey was met with a high response rate across the EU, making it the only survey to provide a trend perspective of the situation during the crisis.
The e-survey aimed to capture the evolving impact of the COVID-19 pandemic three months after its outbreak in the EU. With this second round of data, Eurofound was able to draw comparisons between respondents situation during the initial emergence of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown measure, with the situation three months later, when many countries began easing the restrictions.
The survey examines quality of life and quality of society during COVID-19, including life satisfaction, happiness and optimism, health and levels of trust in institutions. It covers people’s work situation, their work–life balance and use of teleworking during this crisis. The second round expanded its scope to examine job quality, health and safety at work, online schooling, use of online services, and the extent to which respondents had requested and availed of government support schemes.
EU27 Member States.
The third iteration of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey took place in spring 2021, a full year into the pandemic. It was a critical period as countries were grappling with stringent lockdown restrictions aimed at containing the spread of new virus strains, while vaccination programmes were being rolled out. The survey ran from 12 February to 31 March 2021, with a large number of respondents taking part.
The aim of the e-survey was to highlight the social and economic realities of people after nearly a full year of living with COVID-19 restrictions. The e-survey aimed to pinpoint emerging issues since the start of the pandemic, including increased job insecurity, declines in mental well-being, setbacks in recent gains in equality, fall in levels of trust with institutions and challenges to work–life balance.
A particular emphasis was placed on the most vulnerable groups that were hit by the crisis in order to prevent them from falling further behind. Building on the previous e-survey, additional questions covered attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated, trust in science, use of and trust in social media, and access to and quality of public services during COVID-19.
EU27 Member States.
For this fourth iteration of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, Eurofound recontacted previous panel respondents in order to track developments across the 27 EU Member States since the start of the pandemic. This panel survey, spanning from 21 October to 30 November 2021, provided a valuable continuum of insights from panel members.
By inviting respondents of the previous e-surveys to participate in this panel survey, it was possible to track how the social and economic situation in EU Member States had evolved during the pandemic.
Building on the previous data collection, this e-survey aimed to assess the living and working conditions of people after over a full year of living with COVID-19 restrictions. The main focus is on job insecurity, mental well-being, work–life balance and the roll-out of the vaccination programmes, including monitoring vaccine hesitancy.
Only previous panellists were invited to participate.