European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS)
Since its launch in 1990, the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) has provided an overview of working conditions in Europe.
Rounds available
Survey objectives
The main objectives of the survey are to:
Assess and quantify working conditions of both employees and the self-employed across Europe on a harmonised basis.
Analyse relationships between different aspects of working conditions.
Identify groups at risk and issues of concern as well as of progress.
Monitor trends by providing homogeneous indicators on these issues.
Contribute to European policy development on quality of work and employment issues.
The scope of the survey questionnaire has widened substantially since the first edition, aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of the everyday reality of men and women at work. Gender mainstreaming has been an important concern for recent reviews of the questionnaire.
Themes covered include employment status, working time duration and organisation, work organisation, learning and training, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, work-life balance, worker participation, earnings and financial security, as well as work and health.
In each wave a random sample of workers (employees and self-employed) has been interviewed face to face. Following the European enlargements and interest from the EFTA countries the geographical coverage of the survey has expanded.
EWCS 2024
Eurofound carried out the latest round of its European Working Conditions Survey in 2024. The survey aims to ensure comparability over time in job quality and quality of working life. It also focuses on issues around the future of work, including the impact of COVID-19, digitalisation and decarbonisation at work.EWCTS 2021
Eurofound carried out the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) in 2021 and aimed to capture emerging challenges and policy issues around the working lives of Europeans in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines variation in job quality, implications for work organisation, and the interaction between work and private life.EWCS 2015
Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) offers a broad view of working life across Europe’s countries, sectors, and age groups. Its findings guide policy responses to current challenges. The sixth survey, conducted in 2015, interviewed nearly 44,000 workers in 35 countries, covering topics like physical and psychosocial risks, work organisation, work–life balance, and health and well-being.EWCS 2010
The fifth edition of Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) was carried out in 2010. It explores topics as diverse as physical risks, working time, gender segregation, work–life balance, employee representation, work organisation, stress at work, skills development and pay, as well as health and well-being.EWCS 2005
Eurofound’s fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), carried out in 2005, explores a wide range of issues including work organisation, working time, equal opportunities, training, health & safety and job satisfaction.Eurofound experts
You can contact the following experts for questions on the survey.
Agnès Parent-Thirion
Senior research managerAgnès Parent-Thirion is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound, tasked with the planning, development and implementation of working conditions research projects, in particular the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and its analyses. She is responsible for the EWCS 2021 extraordinary edition and for the preparation of the questionnaire for the EWCS 2024. Her research interests include working conditions, job quality, the monitoring of working conditions, work organisation, gender, the future of work and time. She has been working in the area of European comparative surveys for more than a decade, in all aspects including design, questionnaire development, fieldwork, quality control and analysis. She is a graduate in economics and management from Paris IX Dauphine and Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne universities and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics from Trinity College Dublin. She has recently completed online courses on artificial intelligence: inquiry-driven leadership with MIT Sloan Executive Education and ‘Les grand enjeux de la transition: re-ouvrir l'horizon, comprendre pour agir’ with the Campus de la Transition. Before joining Eurofound, she worked for a number of years in the European Commission.
Sophia MacGoris
Surveys officerSophia MacGoris is surveys officer based in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. She works on all three of Eurofound's surveys. Having been involved in cross-national surveys for many years, she uses her experience and her transversal role to ensure a continuity of learning and quality assurance to the highest level during the entire survey process. Prior to joining Eurofound in 1996, she worked for several years in the European Commission in Brussels in the area of science, research and development. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Social Science specialising in Social Policy.
