Europe needs more (and better) jobs
The 'Work and life quality in new and growing jobs' (WALQING) project highlighted good practices and examples in the labour market that can be translated across Europe. The overall objective is to influence policies aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of companies and economies. The project results are available on the WALQING website(opens in new window) and include an in-depth analysis of the European Labour Force Survey, European Working Conditions Survey, Quality of Life Survey and EU statistics on income and living conditions. A balanced absolute and relative trend (BART) index developed during the project allowed researchers to study employment growth in each country. Researchers focused on construction, catering, waste management, mobile elderly care and cleaning — five expanding sectors that are characterised by poor job quality (low-skilled work, low wages, insecurity, low discretion and high strain). Employees in these sectors are frequently vulnerable to discontinuous and insecure work, poverty, with limited perspectives'. WALQING identified cross-cutting issues and challenges by comparing findings from different sectors and countries. The project found that about half of job growth in Europe from 2000 to 2008 (some 16.67 million jobs created) consisted of below-average job quality and the lowest low wages. Researchers identified problem areas and examples of good practice, too. One of the main problems noted is the current trend of compromising job quality in efforts to cut costs, both in the private and the public sector. As a result, workers are under more precarious employment conditions and have reduced aspirations. The WALQING project’s findings are of great importance to a wide variety of actors and stakeholders at national as well as European level. The findings have been presented at a series of conferences, seminars and workshops and continue to be published and presented to the academic community and the wider public in both national and international contexts.
