European survey: Working conditions in Europe are improving despite deep gender, generational and sectoral divides

The EU workforce continues to grow despite demographic challenges, with the increasing participation of women, migrant workers and pre-retirement-age workers contributing to the growth of aggregate employment.

Four fifths of the EU workforce is in good or very good health, with 18 % of workers reporting health problems that limit their ability to do normal activities.

Only one in four workers (23 %) in the EU work in a gender-balanced workplace, while roughly half of the workforce is female. Over the past quarter century, there has been limited progress towards gender balance at management level.

Algorithmic management practices, such as computer-based task allocation, work scheduling and performance monitoring, are reported by a minority of workers at the aggregate level. However, the prevalence varies significantly across occupations, sectors and workplace sizes.

One fifth of employees in the EU (21 %) have neither formal representation nor meetings at the workplace where they can express their views.

The EWCS confirms the positive association of some of the job quality indices with engagement, motivation, trust and cooperation, and the negative association with employees' intention to quit their job. This confirms the importance of job quality for companies' competitiveness.

The distribution of job quality varies by gender, age, occupation, sector and country.

Workers in occupations characterised by labour shortages experience poorer job quality in many domains.

The wide range of differences in job quality between different groups of workers and work situations confirms the need to develop policies and practices that account for all seven job quality dimensions.

Job quality has been improving in the last 15 years in all dimensions except Social environment and Work intensity. The Social environment index has decreased for women, while the Work intensity index has deteriorated for women but improved for men.

The general improvement in the physical environment is due to a reduction in most physical risks and demands. However, exposure to high temperatures, chemicals and infectious materials has increased.

While skills use, development opportunities and access to training have improved, there has been a decrease in workers' ability to influence collective work processes and apply their own ideas, which is concerning.

Overskilling is reported by 30 % of workers in the EU, whereas 13 % report that they need more training to do their job well.

Most workers in the EU (56 %) report that they would like to work the same number of hours that they are currently working, but the share of those preferring to work fewer hours increased from 27 % in 2015 to 33 % in 2024.

Among EU workers, 14 % reported being 'not very well informed' or 'not at all well informed' about health and safety risks at work. An even higher share (29 %) reported being unaware of measures to prevent work-related stress.

For most workers, their job is meaningful. More than 80 % of workers find their work useful and experience the feeling of work being well done. In addition, 85 % of employees feel fairly treated. Two thirds of employees agree that they receive the recognition that they deserve.

It's not all about the money: a safe working environment for mental and physical health and a trusting working environment are the most important aspects for the largest shares of workers in the EU.

In the EU, around 1 in 5 respondents aged 45 years or over would like to work 'as long as possible', while 1 in 10 responded that they would like to retire 'as early as possible'. For those who specified a concrete age, the average desired retirement age was 63.9 for men and 63.1 for women.

The overall picture confirms that the job quality dimensions and their interplay are strongly related to workers' well-being, health and engagement, confirming the importance of job quality in supporting a sustainable working life.