Press release No. 424 of 1 November 2018
WIESBADEN – In 2017, roughly 2.4 million persons in employment aged 15 to 74 years wanted to work more hours (underemployed), while 1.4 million wanted to work less (overemployed). The figures take into account both full-time and part-time employment. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that, overall, underemployed people usually worked an average of 28.5 hours per week. They wanted to work 10.9 hours more. The overemployed usually worked an average of 41.8 hours per week in 2017. They wanted to reduce their working time by 10.8 hours. When asked for their working time preferences, respondents were also asked to take into account that more working hours would involve correspondingly higher earnings and fewer hours correspondingly lower earnings.
