The 2022 Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on "Job skills" focuses on the time spent using specific skills in cognitive (reading and calculation), manual (hard physical work and manual dexterity), social (training and verbal communication with people inside and outside the work organisation) tasks and work methods (autonomy, repetitiveness and standardisation of tasks).

Nearly 13.5% of the respondents indicated that they spent at least half of their working time reading technical documents and 9.2% making relatively complex calculations. In both cases, this share was higher in "Professional, scientific and technical activities" (34.1% and 27.9%, respectively).

Of the total respondents, 26.1% indicated that they spend most of their professional time on hard physical work and 15.2% on tasks requiring manual dexterity. The primary (61.0%) and secondary (25.7%) sectors stood out in the time spent on these tasks, respectively.

Only 10.0% of the respondents indicated that they did not spend any time interacting on professional matters with people from within the work organisation, with this response being more common in the primary sector (27.8%). On the other hand, 31.8% indicated that they spend at least half of their working time interacting with people from outside the organisation, particularly in "Education" (53.3%) activities. Training takes up most of the working time of 13.1% of the respondents, particularly those involved in "Education" activities (49.4%).

Regarding the use of digital devices for professional purposes, 26.8% of the respondents indicated that they spend all or most of their time working using these devices, and this answer was most common in " Information and communication" (84.3%) activities. Narrowing the analysis to the employed population aged 15 to 74, the European average was 28.5% and the national average was 27.9%, placing Portugal as the 15th country in the EU-27 with the highest use of digital devices for professional purposes.

Almost 30% of the respondents indicated that their work always or almost always involves repetitive tasks, mainly in the primary sector (39.2%), 26.0% that they always or almost always perform standardised tasks, namely in the "Armed Forces occupation" (44.0%), and 39.9% indicated having large or very large autonomy to decide the order and/or content of the tasks they perform, especially "Managers" (77.1%).