Two out of five Albanian workers lift or carry heavy objects, while a smaller part work in extreme environments, while almost half use their hands as the main “tool” at work, refer to the findings of the European survey on education and its links to the market of work in our country that took place last year.
According to the results of the survey, 39% of employed Albanians have reported that they have lifted or carried heavy objects, loads or people, without the help of a machine when it was conducted at the beginning of 2023.
Also three out of ten (29%) Albanians surveyed report that they work in an environment with heat or very cold temperatures, chemicals or dangerous parts, roughly in line with the average of the EU (27%) and 5 Western Balkan countries (WB5) (32%).
Furthermore, nearly half (46%) of Albanians say they use their hands to grasp, manipulate, or precisely assemble objects (excluding computer mouse, keyboard typing, or handwriting) roughly in line with the average of WB5 (51%), but significantly more than in EU-27 (38%).
The share of employees who lift weights in Albania is more than the average values in WB5 (37%) and EU27 (34%). Men are much more likely to engage in such manual tasks than women (47% vs. 27%).
Older workers are more likely to lift weights than younger workers (48% of those aged 55-64 versus 28% of those aged 25-34).
Employees with low and medium level education are more exposed to lifting weights (54%) and medium (46%), while only 15% of those with higher education declare that they have done so.
More than half of workers in manual and manual labor occupations (53% and 50%, respectively) claimed to lift weights compared to 30% of those in semi-skilled occupations and 18% of those in skilled occupations.
Lifting objects and loads is also more common among respondents who work in agriculture or industry (50%), while only 36% of those who work in services and 22% of respondents from the public sector, education or health lift objects during working hours.
Respondents were asked whether, as part of their main job, they used or worked with computerized machinery in the last month. About one in five (21%) Albanians say they use computerized machines, compared to nearly four in ten (39%) in the EU, and three in ten (28%) in WB5./Monitor
