Satu Ojala

• Doctor of Social Sciences, Master of Arts
• Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) at Tampere University

The longstanding aim of social security reforms in economically advanced countries has been to ensure that work is financially beneficial. In‐work benefits (IWB) have emerged as pivotal tools in achieving this objective. Earnings disregards, which exempt a portion of earned income from benefit calculations, represent one form of IWBs. This study fo...

Petteri Orpon kesällä 2023 muodostama hallitus perustelee aikomiaan sosiaaliturvan ja työntekijöiden aseman heikennyksiä taloudellisella välttämättömyydellä vedoten siihen, että kilpailukykymme ja työllisyytemme on heikommalla tolalla kuin verrokkimaissa. Puheenvuoromme ensimmäisessä osassa vertailemme Suomea eri indikaattorien valossa muihin OECD-...

In our analysis, we utilize data from the Finnish Labour Force Survey supplemented by qualitative interviews to explore the phenomenon of precarious, or non-standard, work among immigrants. This type of employment is often characterized by its transient nature, including temporary or part-time contracts, coupled with low wages and substandard worki...

Using the Finnish Labour Force Surveys merged with register-based follow-up data, we analyzed how different characteristics of part-time work predict employees’ and entrepreneurs’ employment trajectories in an 8-year follow-up. We analyzed careers by the length of weekly working hours and the reason for part-time work, that is, childcare, studies,...

In the article, the regulatory trajectories of variable hours contracts (VHCs, denoting on-call contracts, and zero-hours contracts) are analysed in two countries, the Netherlands and Finland. The unity or disunity in social partners’ readiness for bringing the issue of VHCs to the agenda of collective bargaining has implications for the labour mar...

Public services are suffering from exhausting working conditions and low wages. A part of the services are already in such a critical situation that their expenses will grow in any case, either under control or beyond control. This analysis elaborates on what implications political choices have for which direction the development of public service...

We investigated the role of teenage everyday social ties in educational outcomes by examining the association between teenage time use and educational attainment in adulthood. The sample consisted of young people aged 10–18 from the 1979 Finnish Time Use Survey, and the same respondents’ educational attainment later in life recorded from population...

Baseline covariates and their associations with all-cause disability pension (DP) and DP based on depression, by gender.

Background: Precarious employment is a potent occupational health risk, but little is known about its association with work-related disability and its causes. This study analyzes whether employment precariousness is associated with receiving disability pension (DP) due to depression and whether this differs according to gender. Methods: Statistics...

Most Nordic labour market and welfare state models are shaped around the notion of the standard full-time open-ended contract. However, the recent development in non-standard work (NSW) may challenge these institutions. In this TemaNord report, we analyse the recent development of NSW within the context of the Nordic models. We draw on Nordic Labou...

In this article, we investigate whether the mid-career stability of Finnish men and women has changed for the birth cohorts 1958 to 1972 and, if so, what the driving forces are behind such changes. We analyse career stability during a 15-year period following the age of 30 using ‘career turbulence’ indicators. To identify the impact of cyclical and...

The stability and quality of work careers are major social and economic issues, as the funding of the Nordic welfare state is based on the employment of working-age people and the tax revenue collected from work, production and consumption. This edited volume examines how work careers have developed in specific industrial sectors and at different l...

Tässä luvussa analysoimme teollisuusyritysten kannattavuuden ja keskeisimpien investointierien-etenkin aineettoman pääoman merkitystä henkilöstön työurille. Yritysten kannattavuutta mittaamme käyttökatteella. Aineetonta pääomaa kuvaamme yritysten tutkimus- ja kehitystoiminnalla, korkeasti koulutetun henkilöstön osuudella sekä tietoteknisillä invest...

Työurat eivät ole Suomessa keskimäärin heikenneet, mutta naisten ja matalasti koulutettujen työurat jäävät miehistä ja paremmin koulutetuista jälkeen. Tasa-arvotoimet eivät ole olleet riittäviä. Naisten heikommat työurat vaikuttavat heille kertyvän ansiosidonnaisen sosiaaliturvan tasoon ja näin tuloerot kertautuvat elämänkaarella. Työelämän tasa-ar...

Tutkimme tässä teoksessa työuria teknologisen murroksen teollisuustoimialoilla. Vaikka työuria on aiemmin tarkasteltu monista näkökulmista, on vain vähän tietoa siitä, millaisiksi työntekijöiden työurat muotoutuvat keskeisillä vientialoilla Suomessa. Etenkin globalisaatio ja teknologian kehitys ovat tekijöitä, joiden vaikutuksesta työurien vakauden...

Tässä luvussa tarkastelemme työuria teollisuudessa 14 kohorttia verraten. Vertaamme 30-vuotiaina teollisuustoimialoilla työskennelleiden, 1958-1971 syntyneiden kohorttien työurien kehitystä ikävuosien 30-45 välillä. Työuria arvioimme seuraamalla henkilöiden työmarkkina-asemaa eri vuosina (työllinen, työtön, opiskelija, työkyvytön, eläkkeellä, työvo...

It is often argued that global competition and technological development have made industrial jobs more unstable. In this article, we ask how career stability has evolved in the Finnish forest, metal, and chemical industries, comparing 14 cohorts (age groups) by gender and educational level. We focus on industrial employees born in 1958-1971 and co...

This report summarizes the main findings and recommendations of a large Nordic project 'Working hours, health, well-being and participation in working life' (WOW, 2015-2021). The project has produced over 100 original publications on the societal and socio-economic differences and trends of Nordic working hours, and on the associations, countermeas...

Sustainable Work Systems in the Technological Transformation The concurrent changes, such as of ageing population, globalization of production and services, and technological acceleration and digitalization are profoundly changing societies, and the labour markets and work, and call for attention on sustainable work systems. Ecological crisis has b...

Career stability and recession: Private-sector employees’ career trajectories, 2007–2015. This article examines the work careers of Finnish private-sector employees aged between 30 and 50 years old in the 2007–2015 period, i.e. immediately before and after the 2008 financial crisis. Our key interest was in studying how individual and family antece...

Työ on jatkuvassa muutoksessa, mutta suuret murrokset näemme vasta jälkikäteen. Emme vielä tiedä, miten esimerkiksi digitalisaation ja automaation kaltaiset - jo kauan käynnissä olleet - megatrendit muuttavat tulevaisuuden työtä. Toistaiseksi perinteinen palkkatyö on säilyttänyt asemansa yhteiskunnallisen järjestyksen perustana. Tarkastelemme luvus...

Background: Discrimination has many kinds of consequences for employees and their well-being. This is an important aspect when considering certain issues, such as the need to prolong working careers. The objective of this study is to investigate the association of perceived gender discrimination at work with subsequent long-term sickness absence a...

Objectives: Previous studies mainly based on the public sector show that organizational justice is associated with a lower risk of sickness absence (SA). The purpose of this study is to analyze this association with multi-cohort data from different employment sectors and to discover whether the association varies according to the general economic c...

Aims: Precarious employment is an emerging determinant of occupational health, but its association with work-related disability remains little understood. We operationalised precarious work as a multidimensional construct and examined how the accumulation of precarious job features predicts the incidence of receiving a disability pension (DP). Me...

This study aimed to find out how heterogeneous temporary employment is reflected in later labour market attachment. Using data from Finnish Quality of Work Life Surveys in 1990, 1997 and 2003 merged with an 8-year register follow-up, we compared permanent workers with three categories of temporary employees: substitutes, common fixed-term (e.g. pro...

Työn laatu määritellään tässä luvussa seuraavien tekijöiden perusteella: 1) palkkaus, 2) työn varmuus ja urakehitysmahdollisuudet, 3) työn sisällölliset tekijät, kuten taidot ja vaikutusmahdollisuudet, ja 4) työajan piirteet, kuten kesto, ajoitus ja joustavuus. Vastoin yleistä keskustelua suomalainen työelämä on kehittynyt laadullisesti paremmaksi...

This article is an effort to explore how fair management (relational justice) is associated with productive HR management practices in changing economic times. The analysis, deploying logistic regression, is based on Statistics Finland’s Quality of Work Life Survey (QWLS) for 1997, 2003, 2008 and 2013. QWLS data are based on employee samples and fa...

This research is an effort to explore how work careers and well-being at work have developed over the past three decades, from the 1990s recession through to the financial crisis of the 2010s. Specifically, the focus is to investigate the development of employees’ work careers and career stability and to find out what kind of working conditions and...

This article contributes to the discussion on flexible working by assessing empirically the prevalence of mobile, multi-locational work in Europe (EU-28, Norway and Switzerland). Drawing on data from the Sixth European Working Conditions Survey, the prevalence of multi-locational work across Europe is examined in terms of the knowledge intensity of...

This article puts to the test the notion that younger generations, most notably the Millennials, value work less than older generations do. The analysis, deploying a linear probability model, is based on Statistics Finland’s Quality of Work Life Surveys, 1984 to 2013. Focusing on labour market entrants aged 15 to 29, we address two main themes: the...

Stability or instability? Young wage earners’ working lives from the 1980s to the 2010s. This article examines the working lives of young, under-30-year-old wage earners over a period of three decades. The research question is how the employment rates (measured as the average number of working months) of 15–30-year-old wage earners have changed fr...

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kokoaikaisten kotietätyöntekijöiden kokemuksia työnsä luonteesta. Aineistoina käytetään Tilastokeskuksen työolotutkimuksia vuosilta 1990–2013 ja teemahaastatteluja. Kokoaikaisesti kotona työskentelee vain prosentti palkansaajista. Tämä ryhmä kokee työpaikan ilmapiirin, esimiehen toiminnan, oman työn tuloksellisuuden, työp...

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kokoaikaisten kotietätyöntekijöiden kokemuksia työnsä luonteesta. Aineistoina käytetään Tilastokeskuksen työolotutkimuksia vuosilta 1990–2013 ja teemahaastatteluja. Kokoaikaisesti kotona työskentelee vain prosentti palkansaajista. Tämä ryhmä kokee työpaikan ilmapiirin, esimiehen toiminnan, oman työn tuloksellisuuden, työp...

It is often argued that job insecurity and precarious work are on the rise. However, the evidence to back these arguments remains mixed and inconclusive. In this study, we define and measure precarious work in Finland using five variables that reflect both objective and subjective insecurity: atypical employment, actually experienced unemployment,...

It is often argued that job insecurity and precarious work are on the rise. However, the evidence to back these arguments remains mixed and inconclusive. In this study, we define and measure precarious work in Finland using five variables that reflect both objective and subjective insecurity: atypical employment, actually experienced unemployment,...

Prekaarin, epävarman työn uskotaan yleistyvän. Empiiristä evidenssiä työn prekarisoitumisesta on kuitenkin niukalti. Tässä tutkimuksessa mittaamme palkkatyötä tekevän prekariaatin laajuutta viidel-lä mittarilla: ylikoulutus suhteessa työn sisältöön, aiempi työttömyys, epätyypillinen työsuhde, työn jatkumiseen kohdistuva uhka sekä huonot työllistymi...

Työuransa alussa olevan Y-sukupolven arvellaan olevan vähemmän työkeskeinen ikäluokka kuin heidän edeltäjänsä. Nykynuorten työorientaatio ei kuitenkaan ole heikentynyt, vaikka perheen ja vapaa-ajan arvostus on kasvanut. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan palkansaajien työasenteita kolmella vuosikymmenellä.

Sosiaalipolitiikan Lumon kirjoittajilla on viesti. Mielestämme politiikan keskeiseksi tavoitteeksi tulisi asettaa sosiaalinen ja ekologinen hyvinvointi. Tätä tavoitetta kohti tulisi kulkea universalismin periaattein ja kansalaisten perusturva, oli sitten kyse työllisistä tai työttömistä, nuorista tai iäkkäistä, kantaväestöstä tai maahanmuuttajista,...

This article draws on Finnish time use data spanning the past three decades (1979–2010) with a focus on the prevalence of wage and salary earners’ work at different locations, namely at the employer’s facilities, at home, outside the home or the main place of work, and on the move. The diary data (N = 13,277) depicts respondents’ time budgets in te...

It is suggested, that the new flexible work practices are enhanced to meet the work-family de-mands and therefore benefit especially women. In the article the focus is on informal flexibility taking place at home, for which field studies of the role of gender are rare. Against the assumptions, paid work at home is mostly informal, supplementary ove...

Purpose – The authors aim to compare how formal flexibility, such as telework, differs from informal overtime work at home regarding the work-family interface. Design/methodology/approach – By using data from the Finnish Quality of Work Life Surveys from 2003 and 2008, the positive and negative measures concerning the work-family interface are exa...

Are the Millennials a different kind of breed? The work orientation of younger generations in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It is often argued that younger generations, essentially Millennials born in the 1980s and later, do not value work as much as older generations do. We examine whether or not this generational difference exists. Our analysis, f...

Forms and prevalence of distributed work across Europe, based on European Working Conditions Survey 2010. Special focus on work at home with Finnish Time Use Survey 2010.

Distributed and mobile work is on the increase. In this article, focusing on Finland in a European comparison, the prevalence of home-based telework is assessed. The data consists of the representative European Working Conditions Survey from 2010 by Eurofound. According to the results, telework is more common in Finland and other Nordic countries t...

It is often argued that the labour market is plagued with increasing job insecurity, high unemployment, and worsening working conditions. These features are reflected in the ongoing discussion on precarious work. However, empirical macro-level evidence on precarious work remains incomplete. In this study we define and measure precarious work in Fin...

This article discusses the growth of knowledge work and the development of the labour market position of different wage-earner groups over three decades from the point of view of earnings, experiences of unemployment and fixed-term employment contracts.

This study examines the relationship between home-based work (HBW) and time use by comparing unpaid (overtime) home workers, paid (agreed) home workers and non-home workers. Especially, unpaid HBW was linked to the stretching of working hours and the reduction of free time.

In this paper, we focus on two dimensions of distributed work, namely on paid work at home and on mobile work. We examine the extent, nature and characteristics of working at or from home as well as working on the road. We divide paid home-based work into two categories: agreement-based telework and more informal overtime work at home. The data con...

Työn ajalliset ja paikalliset sidokset murtuvat. Muutokset näkyvät työn ja kodin rajalla. Kun teollisella ajalla työ oli sidottu pääosin tiettyyn paikkaan kuten tehtaaseen, on nykyisin tilasta riippumattomissa tietointensiivisissä ammateissa jo noin puolet työntekijöistä (Pyöriä 2006). Kotona työskentely on osa työn yleistä monipaikkaistumista: yli...