European System of Social Indicators: Labour Market and Working Conditions, 1980-2013

The European System of Social Indicators provides a systematically selected collection of time-series data to measure and monitor individual and societal well-being and selected dimensions of general social change across European societies. Beyond the member states of the European Union, the indicator system also covers two additional European nations and – depending on data availability – the United States and Japan as two important non-European reference societies. Guided by a conceptual framework, the European System of Social Indicators has been developed around three basic concepts – quality of life, social cohesion, and sustainability. While the concept of quality of life is supposed to cover dimensions of individual well-being, the notions of social cohesion as well as sustainability are used to conceptualize major characteristics and dimensions of societal or collective well-being. The indicator system is structured into 13 life domains altogether. Time-series data are available for nine life domains, which have been fully implemented.

Time series start at the beginning of the 1980s at the earliest and mostly end by 2013. As far as data availability allows, empirical observations are presented yearly. Most of the indicator time-series are broken down by selected sociodemographic variables, such as gender, age groups, employment status, or territorial characteristics. Regional disaggregations are being provided at the NUTS-1 or similar levels as far as meaningful and data availability allows. The European System of Social Indicators is preferably based on harmonized data sources, ensuring the best possible level of comparability across countries and time. The data sources used include international aggregate official statistics, for example, provided by EUROSTAT and the OECD, as well as microdata from various official as well as science-based cross-national surveys, such as the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), Eurobarometer Surveys, the World Value Surveys, or the European Social Survey.

The European System of Social Indicators results from research activities within the former Social Indicators Research Centre at GESIS. In its initial stage, this research was part of the EuReporting-Project (Towards a European System of Social Reporting and Welfare Measurement), funded by the European Commission within its 4th European Research Framework Programme from 1998 to 2001. For more detailed information on the European System of Social Indicators, see the methodological report under „other documents“.<br>The data on the area of life ´Labor market and working conditions´ is made up as follows:
Demographic and socio-economic structures: employment status, structure of employment
Disparities, inequalities and social exclusion: Equal opportunities/inequality of different generations, equal opportunities/inequality of nationals and foreigners, equal opportunities/inequality of women and men, regional disparities in employment opportunities and risks
Human capital: work-related health impairments
Natural capital: Consumption of natural resources by the economy, environmental pollution by the economy
Objective living conditions: Employment: Potential and level, labor market: opportunities and risks, mobility, unemployment and underemployment, working conditions
Social relationships and ties: European-specific concerns, participation, quality of social relationships in working life, quality of social institutions
Subjective well-being: Subjective perception and evaluation of personal employment situation
Values and attitudes: General importance of work, importance of job characteristics.