How does the respondent’s industrial sector reflect their well-being at work experiences?

The “How are you feeling?” well-being at work test has been taken most actively by people working in social welfare and health care services, education and manufacturing. Jobs in different industrial sectors are different from each other, but it is known that it is possible that good well-being at work can be experienced in any sector. The key factors behind well-being at work include the demands of and resources available in a certain job or position.

Here, we will take a look at the sector-specific differences related to work engagement, job burnout symptoms, job boredom, work addiction and work ability. Other differences related to well-being at work experiences can be viewed on the data page.

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Well-being at work, as measured by several different indicators, has deteriorated since 2021

When compared using different indicators, well-being at work has been at a lower level in 2023 and 2024 compared with 2021, but slightly above 2022. The proportion of people experiencing severe occupational burnout in particular has increased from 2021 (26.7%) to 2023 and 2024 (34.5%). Overall, the risk of occupational burnout or likely burnout was clearly more prevalent in this data than in Finnish population surveys.

Similarly, the proportion of people who feel that their work ability is either weak or reduced has increased from 27% to 38% during these years. There has also been a slight decline in work engagement and job satisfaction, and a slight increase in boredom at work and work addiction.

Young adults’ well-being at work has deteriorated and is worse compared with others

In 2023 and 2024, young adults aged 15-35 experienced significantly less work engagement and job satisfaction than other age groups. The oldest group, people aged 51-65, had the most positive experiences of well-being at work. Although work engagement and job satisfaction declined in all age groups in 2022, they remained at a level lower compared with 2021 throughout 2023 and 2024 only in the group of young adults.

Young adults stood out most clearly in terms of boredom at work. More than half of young adults experienced fairly high or high levels of boredom at work, compared to four out of ten people between 36-50 and one in three people aged 51-65. The proportion of young people experiencing boredom at work had also increased slightly since 2021.

Young adults were also more likely to experience occupational burnout than other age groups, which is a cause for concern. At the same time, the likelihood of occupational burnout had increased, especially in the youngest age group. While severe occupational burnout is significantly less common than high work engagement overall, for young people in this data the situation is the opposite: likelihood of occupational burnout was somewhat higher than high work engagement.

Work engagement is slightly more prevalent among women and boredom at work is more common in men

Both women and men were equally satisfied with their work. However, a slightly higher portion of women belonged to the group with high work engagement compared with men. There has been no significant changes in positive experiences of well-being at work in either gender between 2021 and 2024.

Men experienced more boredom at work than women. There were no significant gender differences in the incidence of occupational burnout. In both groups, burnout symptoms increased in 2023 and 2024 compared with 2021. The proportion of people with poor or reduced work ability also increased somewhat in both genders since 2021.

A higher level of education is connected with better well-being at work

From the perspective of education, the so-called social gradient was observed in well-being at work, i.e. the higher the level of basic education, the better the well-being at work measured by different indicators. University graduates were the most satisfied with their work and experienced work engagement.

The biggest differences related to burnout symptoms and boredom at work, which were most common in the group of people whose education was limited to primary, upper secondary or vocational education and least common among those with university degrees. However, the differences between these groups had not increased significantly since 2021.

Most work engagement in the education sector

There were differences between sectors in terms of well-being at work, but, on the other hand, more than one third of people in every sector had experiences of high levels of work engagement and at least 44% were satisfied with their work. However, at least one quarter of people in each sector were likely to experience occupational burnout and at least about one third experienced fairly high or high levels of boredom at work.

More than half of the respondents in the education sector, health and social services, professional, scientific and technical activities and the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors experienced a high level of work engagement. Correspondingly, occupational burnout was most likely in the information and communications sector, the construction sector, the wholesale and retail sector and industry. Boredom at work was observed most in manufacturing, the construction sector and information and communications. In these sectors, approximately half of the people were in the highest third in terms of boredom at work.

Based on various indicators, the average well-being at work was better both in terms of positive experiences and less prevalent negative experiences in the education sector and health and social services. On the other hand, well-being at work was at a lower level than average in industry, the construction sector and information and communications.

How are the results in line with previous research data?

The results seem to be generally in line with previous studies. Especially the How is Finland doing? follow-up study (e.g. Suutala, Kaltiainen and Hakanen, 2023), carried out twice annually since the end of 2019 has shown similar results among the Finnish workforce, such as with regard to the poorer well-being at work of young adults compared with other age groups. In this author’s research, boredom at work in particular has been more common among young people already a lot before the COVID-19 pandemic, but boredom at work among young people does seem to have increased over recent years.

According to a general stereotype, women experience lower levels of well-being at work compared with men. However, in this data and in Finnish studies in general, women experience more work engagement on average than men (Hakanen, 2011). Similarly, experiences of boredom at work have also been observed to be somewhat more common among men previously (Harju et al., 2014). The educational sector and the health and social services sector, known for their demanding human relations work, have also been previously found to have a higher prevalence of work engagement compared with other sectors (Hakanen et al., 2019).

The results demonstrate that both occupational burnout symptoms and experiences of boredom at work occur abundantly in industry and construction, both physically demanding and so-called male-dominated sectors. It is important to pay attention to the mental and not only physical well-being of employees in these sectors in a diverse manner. Although the information and communications sector has experienced a lot of major changes, it may seem somewhat surprising that well-being at work in the sector was weaker than average as measured by various indicators. Measuring well-being at work through more than one type of experience provides a comprehensive picture of well-being at work, including both positive and negative experiences.

The results of this data set, collected with a self-assessment test, are somewhat different from the results of scientific population surveys. The respondents in this study reported job burnout symptoms and decreased work ability more frequently than the respondents to population surveys. This is most likely due to the fact that the self-assessment test is used in situations where the respondent is worried about their personal well-being. The aim of the self-assessment test is to help the respondent identify the level of their well-being at work and encourage them to think about the factors that support it. This should be taken into account when interpreting the results.