The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound impact on families and working life across Europe. In addition to the health implications, many people are now required to balance caring for and educating children, while at the same time continuing to manage work responsibilities.
Trust in institutions such as the news media, national government, European Union, healthcare system and Gardaí has remained comparably high in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite dropping levels of trust across Europe.
On Europe Day 2020, the EU institutions want to pay tribute through numerous online activities to the many Europeans who, in a spirit of solidarity, are helping our Union get through the coronavirus crisis.
The first results from Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 online survey show a Europe grappling to respond to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with many respondents reporting high levels of loneliness coupled with low levels of optimism about their future.
The high levels of resilience reported by the Netherlands may be of long-term benefit to the country as the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to present enormous social, economic and health challenges. The Netherlands reports the highest level of resilience across the EU, with just 17% of respondents reporting difficulty managing their lives when things go wrong.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) could expose existing shortcomings in employment arrangements and social protection in Europe, particularly for some workers in non-standard employment and vulnerable self-employed groups – who are more likely to be at risk of poverty and the impacts of economic shocks.
Eurofound's analysis of the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey shows that in many countries decline in trust in institutions was a temporary phenomenon during the recession that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
Eurofound research shows that the healthcare sector already has among the highest reported work intensity scores in Europe. COVID-19 risks not only exacerbating imbalance between sectors, but also creating a broader gender imbalance in work intensity on the labour market, as women are most represented in healthcare.
While the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents enormous social, economic and health challenges, it is worth noting on Cyprus’ national day that there have been improvements to the quality of society in recent years with the level of social exclusion declining between 2011 and 2016, while at the same time, the level of trust in people has increased.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents unprecedented health, social and economic challenges for Europe, and has profound implications for the way people live and work across the globe. One of the changes that it is already having is the proportion of people working from home.
People aged 25-34 are most likely to be in arrears in the EU, according to Eurofound’s new report on Addressing household over-indebtedness. Among this age group, 21% of people surveyed in the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey reported being in some form of arrears.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown societies around the world into flux and threatens to undo some of the positive progress that has taken place in recent years. However decreasing levels of societal tensions, such has been the case in Greece, may be a positive indicator of strengthening solidarity in society which is important in these difficult times.
Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) is a tripartite EU body, whose mission is to provide knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies.
