Exploring Social Inequalities in Post-pandemic Labour Market Shifts and Job Dissatisfaction in Barcelona: Insights From a Southern European City

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated labour market inequalities, disproportionately affecting low-paying, precarious jobs and vulnerable groups, while also accelerating shifts such as telecommuting, which had mixed impacts on job satisfaction. This study aimed to assess social inequalities in changes in the labour market as well as job dissatisfaction among workers in the city of Barcelona between 2016 and 2022. A comparison of two population-based cross-sectional studies was carried out, using data from the Barcelona Health Surveys (BHS) of 2016-17 and 2021-22. Data sampling was weighted to ensure representativeness. A descriptive analysis was carried out for sociodemographic and work-related variables and multivariate weighted linear regressions were adjusted by potential confounders between year of the sample and job dissatisfaction. Job status improved and job dissatisfaction decreased in both sexes between 2016 and 2022. Having a non-manual job entailed a decrease in job dissatisfaction for women and men (-0.09; 95% CI -0.16 to -0.03 and -0.10; -0.16 to -0.04 respectively). Among women born outside Spain, job dissatisfaction increased (0.09; 0.02 to 0.16). Job dissatisfaction decreased among men with a full-time contract (-0.11; -0.21 to -0.02). In both sexes, having no contract was associated with an increase in job dissatisfaction. There were improvements in the labour market of Barcelona. Job dissatisfaction decreased, but not among migrant women or individuals with manual jobs and precarious contractual situations. Policies developed in recent years might have mitigated the negative effects of COVID-19 on the labour market.