NWCS-COVID-19 Reading guide – Five waves
Each year, TNO and Statistics Netherlands monitor the employment status of the Dutch workforce with the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS). The NWCS is an annual survey conducted amongst a new group of representatives from the workforce in the Netherlands. The NWCS follows changes in the work and working conditions of people in the Netherlands, along with the consequences of these changes for health and sustainable, as well as for their productivity and innovative capacity.
In 2020, the working lives of many people in the Netherlands changed due to the sudden emergence of COVID-19. It was necessary for the Dutch government to adopt and adjust (ease or strengthen) a package of measures. These measures also have direct consequences for the working population in the Netherlands. Some members of the workforce have worked primarily from home, while others have continued to work on-site (thereby running a greater risk of infection) and yet others had no job or tasks in specific time periods (either temporarily or permanently).
The NWCS-COVID-19 cohort study was set up to gain insight into the effects and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic at work. The objective of this cohort is to gain insight in the impact of the pandemic for workers, also in comparison to the situation in 2019. This will allow a precise overview of the consequences for members of the workforce with regard to working conditions, health and specific indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic (including exposure risks, general measures and measures taken by employers).
In this regard, we distinguished three types of target groups: members of the workforce who have continued to work on-site (of the employer or client), members of the workforce who have started working from home (at least part of the time) and participants who had no job or tasks (either temporarily or permanently).
This reading guide is intended to provide a methodological justification for the NWCS-COVID-19 measurements that were conducted in June-July 2020 (first follow-up measurement), October-November 2020 (second follow-up measurement), March 2021 (third follow-up measurement) and November-December 2021 (fourth follow-up measurement).
In addition, it presents the methodological part of the cohort (including a description of the data collection), and presents and describes all variables included. Lastly, the global results of the NWCS-COVID-19 cohort are presented in tabular form.
More information about the NWCS-COVID-19 study and the results can be found under ‘our surveys’.