Employment: Commission Reviews Progress Towards More and Better Jobs
Date: 28-12-2003 - Brussels
The EU is making progress in improving the quality of employment but more needs to be done, according to a new report by the Commission. The report reviews efforts to improve quality at work in line with the 2003 Brussels Spring European Council request, highlights the need for measures to enhance this dimension and points to differences between the performances of Member States.
Anna Diamantopoulou, Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, said: "We will not be able to create more jobs if we do not invest more in quality at work. It is striking that the Member States that are investing most in quality in work are also those with the best employment and productivity performances. This clearly shows that investing in human capital and raising the level of job satisfaction pays off."
Improving quality and productivity in work is one of the main objectives of the EU's Employment Guidelines for 2003-2005. The concept of quality in work has been defined in relation to ten dimensions which encompass better skills and career prospects, improving health and safety at work, better balance between flexibility and security, as well as work organisation and work-life, and reducing employment gaps, in particular regarding women and older workers.
The Communication reports that the workforce is becoming better educated and more highly skilled, more firms are investing in training and more adults are taking advantage of it. Overall, employment rates are increasing and gender gaps in employment and unemployment are narrowing. There are fewer accidents at work, although the incidence rate is still very high in certain sectors and new forms of occupational disorders and diseases are appearing.
Member States have taken steps to review their tax, benefit and pension systems to make work pay, foster a culture of life-long learning, strengthen incentives for enterprises to invest in skills training, improve care facilities for children and other dependants and beef up anti-discrimination legislation.
However, the picture for the EU as a whole is patchy and there is still scope for considerable improvement. In the year 2000, some 20 percent of all employees in the EU declared that they were dissatisfied with their jobs. Relatively high degrees of dissatisfaction were reported in Greece, Italy, Spain and the UK, contrasting with very high percentages (90 percent or more) of satisfied employees in Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and, most notably, Austria.
The EU's employment rate for older workers is well below the 50 percent target. Youth unemployment is generally twice that of adults and young people in a number of Member States are finding it increasingly difficult to get jobs with reasonable career prospects.
Furthermore, non EU-nationals and disabled workers are at a clear disadvantage when job-hunting, women are still hindered from working by the lack of adequate care facilities for children and other dependants, gender pay gaps persist and the productivity gap with the US is increasing.
The overall trends conceal major differences between Member States. While a few of them perform well under most indicators of quality (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria), others display consistently much less favourable performances (Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal).
The 10 indicators of quality at work are:
- Intrinsic job quality
- Skills, lifelong learning and career development
- Gender equality
- Health and Safety at Work
- Flexibility and security
- Inclusion and access to the labour market
- Work organisation and work-life balance
- Social dialogue and worker involvement
- Diversity and non-discrimination
- Overall work performance