A better quality of working life, together with the promotion of employment and entrepreneurship, are central to the European Union's employment strategy and social policy agenda.

In the past, Eurofound has examined issues such as: the quality of employment and working conditions, including work organisation; and access to employment, self-employment and opportunities and support for labour market participation. Following many years of research in these areas, a series of Foundation papers was compiled, based on these themes, starting in 2002.

More recently, Eurofound studies have focused on four key dimensions of quality of work and employment: ensuring career and employment security; maintaining the health and well-being of workers; developing skills and competencies; reconciling work-life balance. Eurofound continues to build on its research in these broad areas, as well as other areas such as occupational health, absenteeism, stress and violence and harassment. The European Observatory of Working Life (EurWORK) continues this work.

The fieldwork for the fifth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) took place in 2010, and this survey gave rise to a series of reports and secondary analyses. Fieldwork for the sixth EWCS is taking place in 2015, with first findings to be published towards the end of the year.

Read more on Eurofound's approach to measuring the quality of work.

See also:
  • EurWORK
    Regular updates from national correspondents and comparative reports on selected working conditions topics, as well as the latest on the European Working Conditions Survey and national surveys
  • European working conditions surveys
    Regular pan-European surveys on working conditions: the first survey was carried out in 1990 and the sixth in early 2015

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