The skills paradox: We must learn more but don’t want to

The Confederation of Vocational Unions YS and the Work Research Institute AFI (OsloMet) have cooperated on the YS Working Life Barometer since 2009.

YS President Hans-Erik Skjæggerud calls it the most important annual report on working life in Norwegian. 

Read this article in Norwegian on Arbeidsliv i Norden

YS Working Life Barometer from 2009 to today

The Working Life Barometer is an annual survey covering Norwegian working life, carried out by the Work Research Institute (AFI – OsloMet) on commission from the Confederation of Vocational Unions YS. 

The survey has been carried out annually since 2009. 

Some 3,000 employees participate in the survey.

The reports from 2009 until today are accessible for all.

The YS Working Life Barometer is structured around six key areas, which are central to understanding developments in working life from the perspective of employees:

• Skills
• Trade unions’ legitimacy 
• Support for collective wage bargaining
• Working conditions, stress and sense of competence
• Equal participation
• Security and attachment to the labour market

This year, the researchers have taken a closer look at workers’ views on health, sick leave and the psychosocial working environment.

You can read this year’s report (in Norwegian) here:

YS Arbeidslivsbarometer – Norsk arbeidsliv 2026: Psykisk helse, tilrettelegging og sykenærvær

Elisabeth Nørgaard and Karoline Brobakke Seglem from the Work Research Institute AFI (OsloMet) presented the most important finding during a seminar at Norway’s annual political festival Arendalsuka in early August. 

The skills paradox

The AFI researchers have spent several years studying how workers perceive their own skills and competence. 

The results are particularly interesting because they can tell us something about how well prepared the labour market for the future of work, believes AFI researcher Elisabeth Nørgaard.

These are the main findings from this year’s Working Life Barometer:

• More employees feel that their employer facilitates skills development.
• Fewer feel that they have sufficient skills.
• Interest in further and continuing education has declined.

Nørgaard points out that a number of government reports, parliamentary white papers and other studies in recent years have underlined the need for lifelong learning.

“There is no lack of public interest in this issue, but are we as employees equally interested? There is a lot of focus on further and continuing education and on the fact that we must not become outdated as employees.

“Another recurring theme is the importance of having the right skills in the right place,” Nørgaard said and continued:

“We’ve had ten years of reports and white papers on the need for the right skills, but has anything actually happened? Have we become more competent?”

The researchers write:

“The results also point to a possible paradox. The opportunity to access skills development has increased over time, while fewer employees experience having sufficient skills.

“This may partly reflect a perception that the demands of working life are increasing, but also that employees are becoming more critical when assessing their own skills.”

At the same time, the findings show that non-formal training is playing an increasingly important role in skills development in working life.

“This may indicate that learning is to a greater extent taking place in the workplace, and that formal education is to a lesser extent seen as the most relevant form of skills development.

“If skills are the key to adapting to change, we have to ask ourselves: Whose responsibility is it to develop skills?

The employers? Employees? Authorities? Trade unions? Or the educational institutions that I represent? I presume the answer is that we have a joint responsibility,” said Nørgaard.

Insecure and lonely young people  

This year’s results from the Working Life Barometer also show a worrying development among young workers. 

Like in the two previous years, it shows that young people have little confidence in their own health and that they feel less confident in their ability to do their jobs. 

For the fourth year running, workers under 30 are the ones who are most likely to believe they are at risk of ending up on disability benefits. 

Other findings about young workers:

• Worries about their own health and ability to work has stabilised at a historically high level. The youngest and oldest workers are the most concerned.
• Young workers report risky working conditions far more often than older workers, and the proportion among those under 30 has increased in recent years.
• A sense of meaning and positive challenges is lowest among the youngest workers and women in the private sector. A sense of purpose and a sense of competence are at their lowest levels throughout the survey period.

This year, the researchers also asked about people’s sense of loneliness at work. One in ten workers say they “always” or “often” feel lonely at work.

Feeling lonely at work is most prevalent among young workers, regardless of gender.

“The trends for young workers in particular are worrying,” says AFI researcher Karoline Brobakke Seglem.

“Frightening development”

AFI has measured how people feel at work for 18 years running now. The development among young workers is what worries YS President Hans-Erik Skjæggerud.

“You workers don’t get what they need,” he said.

Skjæggerud underlined the following:

• Young workers experience more uncertainty in working life than before.
• Young people are more lonely at work than the labour market average.

“And there has been a marked drop in young people’s sense of competence, both in terms of how satisfied they are with the quality of their own work and the amount of work they get done.

“The changes we have seen for some years now among young people are remarkable and they are frightening.

“Regardless of the reasons behind these trends, the most important thing is that we do something about it,” said Skjæggerud. 

Frontline workers under pressure

The YS President is also worried about results from this year’s barometer that show that welfare state frontline workers are under pressure. 

“People working in frontline occupations are under too much pressure from demands for greater efficiency,” he said.

Skjæggerud was alluding to findings that show that:

• Kindergarten employees and those working in the health and care sectors report the highest levels of time pressure at work out of all the occupational groups covered by the survey.
• Employees in care and support roles are those who are most concerned about being unable to work and having to rely on disability benefits within five years.
• Frontline workers stand out clearly as the occupational group most likely to report having emotionally demanding tasks.

“And this is happening while there is a shortage of people who can do these jobs. So our message has to be crystal clear: 

“If we want to still have a welfare state in the future, we have to turn this trend around. We’re running out of time. There is no room for more cuts to municipal welfare services or cuts and staff reductions in frontline services,” said YS President Hans-Erik Skjæggerud.