Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 102 
Figure 37: Share of 10 main economic activities in EU total employment 1996 and 2019 (%), EU28 – 
Eurostat266 
 
 
These changes in the size of the workforce in aggregated sectors contributed to the development of 
health and safety that we observed in the past 30 years, and the decrease in accidents and 
traditionally recognised occupational diseases.  
These sectoral changes also triggered a crucial extension of the focus of OSH, adding to accidents 
and specific occupational diseases the work -related diseases, broadly extending the scope of 
occupational diseases. The relation between work -related risks and major disease groups came into  
focus. Most of these diseases groups are not covered by the spectrum of conventional occupational 
diseases, for example, most musculoskeletal and digestive diseases, cardiovascular and mental 
diseases. Work is a crucial element for health in life, and to neglect its impact would generate a less 
than complete picture of health risks.  
These trends led to structural changes and adaptations in practices of OSH , topics like work 
organisation and psychosocial risks gained a much higher importance in the assessment of working 
conditions.267  
In a wider context, the shift to service work also changed the work performance measuring methods. 
Performance measuring cannot be based anymore on simple output rates (measured in pieces of a 
product, or in physical quantities like cubic or square metr es). The output measurement methods 
shifted to the achievement of objectives, milestones, deadlines, measurable service outputs, 
client satisfaction and other typical service-related performance indicators.  
The change t owards service sectors also goes along with a fast , large-scale shift in the provision of 
education and care from families to professionals. This means a growth of workforce in sectors with 
human–human interaction and the associated emotional challenges .268 This is not the case only in 
education and care; in general there is a higher psychosocial burden in those occupations where work 
with human beings as ‘clients’ takes place, increasing the risks of emotional exhaustion and of difficult, 
inattentive or even aggressive clients.  
Here it has to be mentioned that also work in service sectors has its specific ‘classic’ safety and 
accident risks, particularly in traffic and transport, maintenance and repair but also in sectors like health 
and care (lifting, infections, needles, etc.). And this is true also the other way a round — work in agri-
culture, construction or industry is definitely not free from psychosocial risk factors  and its 
impact on mental health, also this work relies on human–human interaction.