During and just after World War II a number of physiologists studied the energy expenditure in a variety of systematically occupations. At that time work joules were often used as the basis for assessing occupational loads and the severity of tasks. Today many jobs are different, these procedures are no longer in vogue and new methods are used to assess workloads. Nevertheless some of these results are assembled in Tables 6.1 and 6.2.
Working posture might have a significant influence on the energy expenditure, as the example in Figure 6.2 shows.