system helps to broadly describe changes of the economic structure that obviously influence working 
conditions.  
Even during the past three decades the trend from agriculture and industry to other service- dominated 
sectors continued in the EU, as the following Eurostat figure shows. The share of employees in 
agriculture went down from 8% to 4%, and also down in indus try from 21% to 15%, construction 
remained quite stable between 6% and 7% whilst all the service sectors (except ‘Financial services and 
insurance’) gained a bigger share, particularly ‘Professional, scientific and technical activities’.