Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 141 
References and notes 
 
 
1 OSH Barometer data visualisation tool: https://visualisation.osha.europa.eu/osh-barometer 
2 Methodological remark: Many workers in the service sectors have similar physically demanding work like workers 
in manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The statistical assignment of enterprises of a certain type to the 
service sectors and the sectors industry/construct ion/agriculture is a too rough approach to describe and analyse 
working conditions, particularly if more detailed data on working conditions are available. For that reason, when 
talking about health outcomes, in this report often more informative categories are used, for example, managerial 
jobs (LFS, Eurostat terminology), or high-, medium - and low-skilled clerical work (EWCS), or high- skilled manual 
and low-skilled manual work (Eurostat), independent on the sector where this work is performed. 
3 EU-OSHA – European Agency for Safety and Health at Work: Third European Survey of Enterprises on New 
and Emerging Risks (ESENER 3), ESENER Data visualisation, section ‘Comparisons 2014-2019’; for ‘Prolonged 
sitting’ value from ‘Data visualisation 2019’ not from ‘Comparisons’. 
4 Some of the very first OSH regulations on psychosocial risks at workplaces were issued by Denmark in the early 
1980s, dealing with monotony at work, stress, risk of violence at work and risks of working alone. 
5 Psychosocial risks are regarded as reason, and mental health/disease as consequence or outcome of these 
risks. 
6 OSHWiki, 2022: Psychosocial issues – the changing world of work; OSHWiki, 2022: Psychosocial risks and 
workers health 
7 EU-OSHA, 2007: Expert forecast on emerging psychosocial risks related to occupational safety and health  
8 Eurofound, 2017: Sixth European Working Conditions Survey – Overview report (2017 Update) (p. 48). Raw 
data for 2015: Eurofound: European Working Conditions Survey - Data Visualisation; Data for 2005: Eurofound: 
Fourth European Working Conditions Survey 
9 EU-OSHA: ESENER Data visualisation, Comparisons 2014-2019. 
10 Due to the change of possible response items, the data for the three surveys cannot be compared; the number 
of mental risk factors increased from three in 2007 and 2013 to eight in 2020. 
11 Eurostat, 2021: EU labour force survey 2020 module on accidents at work and other work-related health 
problems : assessment report : 2021 edition 
12 Eurostat: Persons reporting exposure to risk factors that can adversely affect mental well-being by sex, age and 
factor, data here and explanatory metadata here 
13 It has to be noted that in 2007 and 2013 the interviews were done face-to-face. In 2020 the interviews were 
conducted either face-to-face or by phone, depending on the public health measures in each country. The 
responses were influenced by work under conditions of the pandemic. 
14 Eurostat: Persons reporting exposure to risk factors that can adversely affect mental well-being by sex, age and 
educational attainment level 
15 Rigó et al., 2021: Work stress on rise? Comparative analysis of trends in work stressors using the European 
working conditions survey 
16 WHO/ILO, 2021: WHO/ILO joint estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury, 2000–2016: Global 
monitoring report (p. 35ff). 
17 Eurostat provide data for the periods before and after the NACE revision in 2008. Data for 2019: Average number 
of usual weekly hours of work in main job, by sex, professional status, full -time/part-time and economic activity 
(from 2008 onwards, NACE Rev. 2), here Filter: Full-time, 15-64 years, all NACE sectors. Data for 2006: Average 
number of usual weekly hours of work in main job, by sex, professional status, full -time/part-time and economic 
activity (1998-2008, NACE Rev. 1.1), here