What is the proportion of persons in employment with excessive working hours? The calculation covers all full-time employed generally working more than 48 hours per week. The data are based on the respondents’ self-assessment. The definition of 'excessive' working hours is based on international conventions.
Average weekly working hours cover employed persons with a wide range of working hours (see indicator "weekly working hours"), which can also be above or below average. Both cases may pose problems to the employed persons: Excessively long working hours may be physically or psychologically stressful and leaving less time for their private lives. Jobs with (too) short working hours usually lead to wage losses. In many cases, they are accepted because no job with longer working hours is available (see indicator "Involuntary part-time").
7.5% of full-time employed are work more than 48 hours a week
In 2023, 7.5% of full-time employed persons indicated to have usually worked for more than 48 hours per week. Such long working hours affect mainly men: 9.0% of the men but just 4.6% of the women.
| Subject of evidence | % |
|---|---|
| Source: Labour Force Survey | |
| Total | 7.5 |
| Male | 9.0 |
| Female | 4.6 |
Increasing age, longer working hours
There is a general rule: the older the people the longer their working hours. Only 1.5% of the persons in full-time employment aged 15 to 24 years worked more than 48 hours a week in 2023. That share rose along with age, so that 9.8% of the full-time employed aged 55 to 64 years worked more than 48 hours a week.
Excessive hours almost normal for managers
One of the reasons for the marked age differences is the large proportion of excessive working hours among legislators, senior officials and managers, which are observed more often in the older age groups. Almost a quarter of such managers in full-time jobs usually worked more than 48 hours in 2023 – among the other persons in employment that share was much smaller (6.5%). Many skilled agricultural workers (28.7%) and professionals (10.7%) worked longer, too. Long working hours were observed least often for people in full-time elementary occupations such as clerks (1.8%) full-time unskilled workers (2.6%) and craftsmen (3.8%).
Self-employed work longer than 48 hours most often
The group working more than 48 hours most frequently is self-employed people: in 2023 a share of 36.5% of all self-employed work particularly long; self-employed with staff (46.2%) even much more often than solo self-employed (24.4%). In comparison, only 4.5% of all full-time employees worked so many hours.
While the share of employees working longer than 48 hours per week remained the same during the corona pandemic, the share of the self-employed decreased compared with 2019. Ongoing restrictions or business downturns due to interrupted supply chains and only a slow recovery are likely to have played a role here. However, it must also be taken into account that as a result of the redesign of the labour force survey, the results are comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent.
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Percentage of persons in full-time employment (over 15 years) usually working more than 48 hours per week in all employed persons in full-time (over 15 years).
Source
Labour Force Survey
Information for interpretation
It is recommended to examine (1) self-employed persons and employees and (2) managers separately as self-employed and managers are much more likely to have long working hours than (other) employees.
The microcensus with the integrated European labour force survey has been redesigned in 2020. The list of questions and the concept of the sample survey were modified, and with the introduction of an online questionnaire, the form of data collection were also changed. The results from survey year 2020 onward are therefore comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent.
Further methodological changes affecting the results were performed in 2005, 2011 and 2021. Consequently, the results for those years can be compared with the results for previous years to a limited extent only.
The extrapolation of microcensus data uses the population figures from the 2011 Census, which was conducted as at 9 May 2011. The results have been revised from 2010 onwards. With effect from the year 2016, the sample is based on the 2011 census data. This transition affects the comparability of the results with previous years.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).
Further information
Redesigned microcensus as of 2020