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BackgroundResearch on occupation and risk of COVID-19 among foreign-born workers is lacking. We investigated whether working in essential occupations was associated with COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and intensive care unit (ICU) admission and whether foreign-born workers in similar occupations as Swedish-born individuals had a higher risk of the studied outcomes.MethodsOccupational data (2018–2019) of 326 052 employees (20–65 years) who were resident in Sweden as of 1 January 2020 were linked to COVID-19 data registered from 1 January 2020 to 28 February 2021. We analysed the risk of COVID-19 outcomes in different occupational groups and in four immigrant/occupation intersectional groups using Cox proportional hazards regression with adjustments for sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics and pre-existing comorbidities.ResultsWe identified 29797, 1069 and 152 cases of COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisations and ICU admissions, respectively, in our cohort. Workers in essential occupations had an elevated risk of COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation, and ICU admissions. Healthcare workers had a higher risk of all the outcomes compared with other essential workers. Relative to Swedish-born workers in non-essential occupations, foreign-born workers in essential occupations had 1.85 (95% CI 1.78 to 1.93), 3.80 (95% CI 3.17 to 4.55) and 3.79 (95% CI 2.33 to 6.14) times higher risk of COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and ICU admission, respectively. The corresponding risks among Swedish-born workers in essential occupations were 1.44 (95% CI 1.40 to 1.49), 1.30 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.56) and 1.46 (95% CI 0.90 to 2.38).ConclusionOccupation was associated with COVID-19 outcomes and contributed to the burden of COVID-19 among foreign-born individuals in this study.

BackgroundPoor health is a potential risk factor for not finding employment among unemployed individuals. We investigated the associations between localized and multiple-site musculoskeletal pain and re-employment in a three-year follow-up of unemployed job seekers.MethodsUnemployed people (n = 539) from six localities in southern Finland who participated in various active labour market policy measures at baseline in 2002/2003 were recruited into a three-year health service intervention trial. A questionnaire was used to collect data on musculoskeletal health and background characteristics at baseline and on employment status at the end of the follow-up. We conducted a complete case (n = 284) and multiple imputation analyses using logistic regression to investigate the association between baseline musculoskeletal pain and re-employment after three years.ResultsParticipants with severe pain in the lower back were less likely to become re-employed. This was independent of potential confounding variables. Pain in the hands/upper extremities, neck/shoulders, lower extremities, as well as multiple site were not determinants of re-employment.ConclusionsOur findings lend some support to the hypothesis that poor health can potentially cause health selection into employment. There is the need to disentangle health problems in order to clearly appreciate their putative impact on employment. This will allow for more targeted interventions for the unemployed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3200-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background:Little is known about the work patterns of re-employed people. We investigated the