In the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) annual “How’s Life?” report published November 6, Slovakia finished in the middle zone of countries measured by their subjective well-being of citizens. This zone included 60 percent of all countries compared, including Poland, Slovenia, Great Britain and Spain.
The best-placed members of the OECD, an organisation comprised of the world’s richest, most industrialised countries, are Australia, Canada and the Nordic states – Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Switzerland and the United States also placed high. On the opposite end are Mexico, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Estonia and Chile, the SITA newswire quoted the report.
The crisis had a big impact on the economic well-being of households, according to the OECD which again was reflected in higher unemployment rate, involuntary part-time employment, or financial insecurity and poverty. In the crisis-stricken countries, the life satisfaction and trust in institutions were strikingly decreased, while there were only slight, if any at all, changes in the medical results if the overall population.
As for gender differences, the OECD report found that the well-being differences between men and women have lessened in recent decades. Women live longer than men, but suffer from illnesses more frequently. Girls do better in school, but continue to be represented insufficiently in key sectors of education which offer better job opportunities. Women still earn less than men, spend more hours in unpaid work and have more difficulties to reach the culmination of their career or start an own business. However, men also face some gender challenges, the OECD points out, as they experience feeble job prospects and have to adapt to changing social tasks, roles and expectations.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
