Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 151 
 
 
250 Eurofound, 2007: Fourth European Working Conditions Survey (2005) (p. 80). 
251 The ISCED levels 2011 are: ISCED 0: Early childhood education (‘less than primary’ for educational 
attainment); ISCED 1: Primary education; ISCED 2: Lower secondary education; ISCED 3: Upper secondary 
education; ISCED 4: Post-secondary non-tertiary education; ISCED 5: Short-cycle tertiary education; ISCED 6: 
Bachelor’s or equivalent level; ISCED 7: Master’s or equivalent level; ISCED 8: Doctoral or equivalent level. 
252 Eurofound, 2015: Sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS 2015), Data visualisation The exact 
survey question is: ‘Does your work affect your health?’ The percentages in the text are the percentages of the 
response option: ‘Yes, mainly negatively’. Data need to be checked a second time, the EWCS data visualisation 
does not work 
253 Eurofound, 2006: Fifteen Years of Working Conditions in the EU: Charting the Trends (p. 6); EU-OSHA 
calculations based on EWCS raw data. 
254 Average of country values, no weighing according to size of populations per country. EU-OSHA calculations 
based on EWCS raw data. 
255 Eurostat: Persons reporting a work-related health problem by sex, age and educational attainment level, here  
256 Ibid.  
257 Eurostat: Persons reporting a work-related health problem by sex, age and NACE Rev. 2 activity, here 
258 Eurofound mentions the following reasons: ‘In line with the findings from the analysis of the job quality indices, 
multivariate analysis shows that workers are likely to be less optimistic regarding the sustainability of their work if 
they are exposed to any of the following adverse working conditions: work intensity, shift work (particularly daily 
split shifts), night work, fear of losing their job, unfair treatment, and bullying or harassment (Figure 123)’. Sixth 
European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report (2017 Update) (p. 122). 
These same factors also apply equally to the older age cohort (aged 56 or over) who were asked about their 
perceived ability to be doing their current job in five years’ time. EWCS 2015, Overview report (p. 122). 
259 Eurostat: Persons reporting a work-related health problem resulting in time off work by period off, here, Filter: 1 
month or over, and 3 months or over. The question on the period off work is part of a set of questions on work-
related health problems, about the ‘most serious health problem caused or made worse by work’. The question 
about the period of work is exactly: ‘Thinking of the year before [last day of reference week], for how long were 
you off work because of your health problem in this period?’ 
260 Ibid., the value for Finland is from 2013, 2020 data are not provided’ 
261 Ibid., Filter 6 months or over.  
262 Eurostat: Self-reported work-related health problems and risk factors - key statistics, here 
263 Eurofound: European Working Conditions Survey 6 (EWCS 6), 2015, the exact question was: ‘Do you think 
you will be able to do your current job or a similar one until you are 60 years old?’: Eurofound 2017: Sixth 
European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report (2017 Update) (p. 48). 
264 Andersen et al., 2020: Barriers and opportunities for prolonging working life across different occupational 
groups: the SeniorWorkingLife study 
265 Definition: ‘Administrative’ and ‘manual’ work is used throughout the report as a — quite colloquial — 
placeholder to characterise the difference between two major types of work; it is only one of several options. 
International and European institutions developed categories with several levels of aggregation or granularity that 
are applied based on context and the objectives of the analysis. Eurostat uses the European Socio-Economic 
Groups (ESEG) or the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), EU agencies often use the