Eurofound notes improvements in job quality in Europe

Now that the European Commission has announced its intention to present a bill on job quality by the year end, the results of the latest European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) will be scrutinised very closely!
The survey provides a comprehensive overview of job quality in Europe, examining the characteristics of the workforce, workplaces, job quality and the quality of working life. The results are based on more than 36,600 face-to-face interviews, each lasting approximately 45 minutes, conducted in 35 countries.
This survey provides a unique insight into the state of work in Europe, and is a treasure trove of information waiting to be discovered, by perusing the overview report (see executive summary) and using the online visualisation tools.
Much of the report is devoted to evaluation of the seven indicators of job quality: earnings; working time quality; prospects (career, job security, etc.); skills and discretion; work intensity; social environment (support from colleagues, absence of adverse social behaviours); and physical environment. The results are broken down in various ways, including by sector, qualification level, gender, etc., and subsequently by country.
The Nordic countries tend to lead the rankings, along with Luxembourg, Switzerland, Estonia and Austria. Bulgaria and Romania occupy the last places, behind three countries that have applied for EU membership (North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Italy and Greece.
The report notes some improvements. For example, in terms of working time, the percentage of workers who sometimes work more than 10 hours a day fell from 37% in 2005 to 28% in 2024, while the proportion of those working more than 48 hours a week fell from 19% to 11% over the same period. Eurofound nevertheless notes that “despite a general improvement in job quality, the benefits are not evenly distributed. Significant gaps remain, in terms of sex, age, place of origin, state of health, occupation and sector.”
In addition to this mine of information, a chapter is devoted to the issue of employee representation in the workplace. The survey shows a strengthening in the presence of forms of workforce representation.
When asked whether there was a trade union, works council or similar body representing employees at their company, 53% of workers in the survey responded in the affirmative (up 5 points on 2015). The prevalence of this representation increases with the size of the company, and is significantly higher at companies with more than 250 employees (85.4%) and those with between 50 and 250 employees (68.9%).
The distribution by country is very unequal: fewer than one third of employees benefit from such representation in Latvia, Bulgaria and Estonia. At the other end of the scale, two thirds or more of employees in France, Belgium and Finland say they have a form of collective representation in their workplace. The leading countries are Denmark (68%), Luxembourg (70%) and Sweden (80%). Outside the EU, Norway enjoys the largest share of all (82%).
Another question concerns the existence of a regular meeting at which employees can express their views on what is happening within their organisation. In total, 62% of employees indicated that they had such an opportunity (9 points more than in 2015), though with significant variations, ranging from 39% in Hungary to 80% in Sweden. However, 21% of EU employees did not have either formal representation or meetings at their workplace, and a further 11% stated that there were meetings at which they could express their views, but there was no collective representation within their company or organisation.

(Article published in IR Notes 272 - 22 April 2026)