Press release No. 047 of 15 February 2016
WIESBADEN – The usual weekly working hours of all persons in employment, measured as the total of main and secondary activities, amounted to an average of 35.7 hours in 2014. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that, in purely arithmetical terms, the extra or fewer hours people wanted to work would on balance result in an increase of the weekly working time of 0.6 hours per person in employment. In this context, it was assumed that working more hours would involve higher and working less hours lower earnings.
According to results of the microcensus and the labour force survey, slightly more than 90% of the 39.7 million people in employment aged 15 to 74 years did not want any change in their weekly working hours. However, roughly 2.9 million (underemployed) people wanted to work more hours, whereas a little more than 0.9 million (overemployed) people wanted to reduce their working time.