Stress in the workplace to rise, say 8 out of 10 in major pan-European opinion poll

Job-related stress is a concern for the large majority of the European workforce, according to new research carried out by Ipsos for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The research measured the opinions of over 35,000 members of the general public in 36 European countries on contemporary workplace issues including job-related stress, and the importance of occupational safety and health for economic competitiveness and in the context of longer working lives. Eight in ten of the working population across Europe think that the number of people suffering from job-related stress over the next five years will increase (80 per cent), with as many as 52 per cent expecting this to ‘increase a lot’.

Work-related stress is one of the biggest health and safety challenges faced in Europe, representing a huge cost in terms of human distress and economic performance. The poll finds that the large majority of Europeans (86 per cent) agree that following good occupational safety and health practices is necessary for a country’s economic competitiveness, with 56 per cent strongly agreeing. Views are similar among workers and those who do not work (86 per cent and 85 per cent agree respectively).

The poll also finds that 87 per cent of the general public across Europe believe that good occupational health and safety practices are important to help people work for longer before they retire (including 56 per cent who say they are ‘very important’).

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Technical details

The 2011/12 Pan-European opinion poll on occupational safety and health was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of EU-OSHA. Ipsos carried out surveys of the general public in 36 European countries, including all 27 EU Member States, 3 EEA countries and 6 candidate and potential candidate countries. A total of 35,540 interviews were conducted with adults aged 18+ (aged 18 to 65 in Luxembourg and Slovenia, and aged 18 to 64 in Greece) between 24th October 2011 and 17th January 2012. In each country, c. 1,000 interviews were conducted with the general public (except in Liechtenstein where 200 adults were interviewed). The majority of countries used a telephone approach, with interviews conducted by CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) where possible and existing omnibus surveys were used in most countries. The sampling methods used for the surveys are designed to be representative. When aggregating the results at an overall level for the 36 countries, the data was weighted by the population size of each country. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/-0.5 percentage points for a sample of 35,540 and an estimated margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points for a sample of 1,000 19 times out of 20 of what the results would have been had the entire population of the adults been polled. This is the second opinion poll commissioned by EU-OSHA.

• Results of the 2009 poll (OHSA website)