FSD3645 Finnish Working Life Barometer 2020

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

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Study description in other languages

in Finnish

Related files

Questionnaire (PDF file, Finnish)

Study title

Finnish Working Life Barometer 2020

Dataset ID Number

FSD3645

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3645

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

Statistics Finland. Interview and Survey Services
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Abstract

The annual survey studied employee opinion on the quality of working life in Finland. Main themes included organisation of work, development opportunities and flexibility, learning and training at work, wages, workplace bullying, capacity to work, and changes in working life. Questions in the barometer have mainly remained the same each year. The 2020 collection round included new questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, the respondents were asked about the number of people employed at their workplace, changes in the number of staff, distribution of work and tasks, and implementation of new working methods and systems over the past 12 months. Satisfaction in the working environment was charted with questions about openness, encouragement and equality in the workplace, job stability, and opportunities for employees to develop and apply new ideas. Further questions covered measures taken to improve employees' capacity to work, safety of work environment, and skills of employees. Discrimination at work based on ethnic group, age, gender, type of job contract, and health status was explored. Incidents of bullying, harassment and violence at work were surveyed.

The next set of questions investigated the respondents' membership in a trade union or professional association, flexible working time arrangements at the workplace, pay and bonus systems, and satisfaction with the pay level. The respondents' participation in job-related training and the contents of the training (e.g. IT, leadership skills, communication skills) were surveyed. The development of the workplace was also investigated. The use of virtual workspaces and social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs as part of work tasks was charted.

Autonomy at work was surveyed by asking about influence over own work tasks and working pace, over the distribution of work in the workplace, and about working to a tight schedule. The respondents were asked about work-related calls, emails and messages they had had to attend to outside their official working hours in the past 12 months. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on working conditions was investigated with questions on whether the respondents had worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic, whether they had started to work remotely because of the pandemic, whether they now had to do more remote work than before the pandemic, and how satisfied they had been with remote work during the pandemic.

One set of questions investigated the employees' perceived workload, capacity to work, estimates of own mental and physical capacity to work, and sickness absences. Additionally, the respondents' experiences of stress, mental exhaustion, and excitement related to work were surveyed. The respondents were asked whether they had been temporarily laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whether their working hours had been reduced because of the pandemic, and how the pandemic had impacted their workload. The respondents were asked how likely they thought it was that they would be dismissed or temporarily laid off, or that their tasks would change over the next year. Finally, views were probed on the respondents' likelihood of getting an equal job if they became unemployed, on the general employment situation in Finland, possible changes in working life in general, and the employer's financial situation.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's year of birth, age, gender, status in employment, employer type, industry of employment, type of contract, weekly working hours, overtime, and socioeconomic status.

Keywords

COVID-19; career development; employees; employment; employment opportunities; expectation; flexible working time; hours of work; job satisfaction; occupational life; telework; wages; working conditions; workloads; workplace bullying

Topic Classification

Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
Equality, inequality and social exclusion (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Labour relations/conflict (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Working conditions (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Occupational health (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Finnish Working Life Barometers

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

Statistics Finland

Time Period Covered

2020

Collection Dates

2020-08-10 – 2020-09-28

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish-speaking employees aged 18-64 whose regular working hours are at least 10 hours

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified

The Working Life Barometer interviews were conducted in connection with the Labour Force Survey data collection, which took place in August-September 2020. The sample for the Working Life Barometer was drawn from the Labour Force Survey sample. The Labour Force Survey data collection is based on a stratified random sample drawn from the Statistics Finland population database. The Labour Force Survey is a panel study where one person is interviewed five times over a period of 18 months.

From the May 2020 sample of the Labour Force Survey, Finnish-speaking employees aged 18-64 who had responded that they were employed for at least 10 hours a week were selected for the Working Life Barometer. The sample size in 2020 was 2,164 persons and the number of respondents was 1,647 persons.

Collection Mode

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

80.4

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English and Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

117 variables and 1647 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The data delivered to FSD do not include background information collected from registers: level of education [ukaste] and [ukaste2] and region/area of residence [kumu], [avi] and [ely].

Weighting

The data contain a weight variable [tb_paino] which weights the data to correspond to target population distributions of gender, 10-year age groups, NUTS2 major regions, and socioeconomic status. The target population was estimated based on the Labour Force Survey sample, meaning that it consists of employees who regularly worked at least 10 hours a week.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Statistics Finland & Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment: Finnish Working Life Barometer 2020 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2022-04-19). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3645

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Keyriläinen, Marianne (2021). Työolobarometri 2020. Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön julkaisuja 2021:36. Helsinki: Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-327-804-2

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