A recent report shows the changes in the quality of employment of member states of OECD, keeping in mind three aspects related to the work environment. Spain is one of the countries with the worst results, France is in the middle, and other countries such as Finland or Norway have the highest standards.
20 july 2016
From the beginning of the crisis, important changes have occurred in the field of employment. The job market has suffered from new tendencies and phenomena which had not existed before. Besides, among all of these changes, the quality of employment also has suffered in the last decade.
A recent report by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) analyses the current quality of employment and shows the evolution of employment of the states who are members of the organization. To determine the work quality, three indicators were kept in mind:
- Earnings. With this indicator, the relation between earnings of workers and their wellbeing is studied.
- The stability of the job market. In this section, the risk of unemployment is measured, as well as the duration of employment.
- The quality of the work environment. Finally, the quality of the work environment where workers carry out their activities is evaluated. This is not a purely economic concept; it also has consequences on the quality of work and productivity of the employees.
Spain is the second country after Greece with most job insecurity and a high risk of unemployment
After observing the work conditions of OECD´s member states using these three indicators, the authors of the report classify the countries into three different groups according to employment quality:
- Countries with high employment quality. Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
- Countries with average employment quality. Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, Sweden, and UK, among others.
- Countries with low employment quality. Spain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey.
Spain is found among countries with the worst quality of employment, according to the data presented in the report. In the last years, the country has registered precarious levels of employment, which has great consequences on the job market.
Job instability in Spain
One of the most relevant phenomena is the significant rise of instability in the job market. Spain is the second OECD member state after Greece with the highest percentage of job insecurity. This piece of data showed an increase by more than 20 points between the years 2007 and 2013.
What is more, Spain is among the countries with the worst work environment quality, with more than 50% of workers who suffer from pressure and who have an increased risk of psycho-social problems in the workspace. Apart from this, instability of earnings has also shown a slight rise, even though salaries keep being in the average of those of OECD member states.
