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 and work addiction. Other differences related to well-being at work experiences can be viewed on the data page.

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Work engagement highest in the education sector and social welfare and health care services

About 47% of all respondents believe that their work engagement is high, while 31% indicated that their level of work engagement is low. Of the people working in the education sector, social welfare and health care services and financial and insurance sector, about 56%, 51% and 48% experienced high work engagement, respectively. On the other hand, of the people working in construction, manufacturing and transportation, only about 39%, 37% and 34% experienced high work engagement, respectively.

Job burnout symptoms were most common in the wholesale and retail trade and the transportation and storage sectors

Of all respondents, about 55% indicated that their job burnout symptoms were relatively high or high, while 8% reported low symptoms. Of the people working in wholesale and retail trade, in the transportation and storage sectors, and in the real estate sector as much as 63% reported relatively high or high job burnout symptoms. High or relatively high values were least common in the health and social services sector (51%), education sector (51%) and the financial and insurance sector (50%).

Job boredom is most common in transportation and storage, manufacturing and construction

About 41% of all respondents believe that their job boredom is relatively high or high, while about 17% indicated that their level of job boredom is low. Of the people working in the transportation and storage sector, manufacturing and construction, as much as 54%, 52% and 48% reported experiencing high or relatively high job boredom, respectively. On the other hand, high values were least common in administrative and support services (39%), the health and social services sector (36%) and education (31%).

Work addiction is most common in the real estate sector and the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector

Of all respondents, about 17% indicated that their level of work addiction was high or relatively high, while 13% reported low work addiction. Work addiction was most common in the real estate sector (25%), the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector (23%) and education (21%). High values were least common in public administration (15%), the health and social services sector (15%) and manufacturing (14%).

How are the results in line with previous research data?

Sector-specific differences seem to be primarily in line with previous studies, for example, in how job boredom is common in manufacturing while work engagement is common in education and the health and social services sector (Harju et al., 2014; Hakanen et al., 2019).

The results indicate that job burnout symptoms are common in “male-dominated” sectors that involve heavy physical stress. Job boredom is also more common in “manual labour”. It is important to pay attention to the mental well-being of the employees in these sectors in a diverse manner, not just their physical well-being. 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. Here, the respondents report job burnout symptoms more frequently than the respondents of a population survey. 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.

This Work-Life Knowledge service analysis page also involves a data page: The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s “How are you feeling?” well-being at work test provides extensive insight into well-being at work.

Authors

Jaana-Piia Mäkiniemi, Specialist Researcher

Jari Hakanen, Research Professor