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Employee job satisfaction is essential for organizations because it influences motivation as well as productivity, and consequently the overall performance of an organization. As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many work-related processes and practices, the Industry 5.0 framework formulated new approaches for a sustainable and resilient European industry. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on job satisfaction in terms of gender differences and firm size in the context of the Industry 5.0 paradigm. Job Satisfaction Surveys (JSS) from the year 2013 to 2021 were analyzed. Our results indicate that in the Czech Republic, overall job satisfaction did not decline during the pandemic, and women were slightly more satisfied than men. Moreover, overall job satisfaction was slightly higher in small firms. These are surprising results, given the negative impacts on employment reported by many countries. We explore the differences in government policies and programs enacted during the pandemic to assist employers and employees to mitigate the negative impacts of the pandemic. In general, Czech and EU policies appeared to be better in mitigating unemployment rates than US policies. The findings are valuable for crafting best practices for organizations and future policy and program planning for governments.

Our study aims to refine and extend the understanding of the nexus between different pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2), PM 2.5, and methane (CH4) emissions, income inequality, and living adequacy thresholds. The study also elucidates the living adequacy threshold variable to determine whether people have an adequate standard of living. Thus, the analysis of both income inequality ratios and living adequacy thresholds provides a more accurate picture of the living and social conditions of the population in a country. In addition, this study considers education levels, perceived corruption, and selected industrial output measures. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methodology provides various configurations for 2018. Our findings suggest that the levels of CO2 emissions are not influenced by income inequality and living adequacy thresholds in middle to upper-income countries. However, PM2.5 and CH4 emissions are impacted by high-income inequality and low living adequacy thresholds in low to middle-income countries. JEL classification codes: D63, D31, I32, N30, Q53