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Archive:Hours of work and absences from work - quarterly statistics

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Data extracted in January 2021

Planned article update: April 2022

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This article aims to describe the quarterly change in the hours actually worked by employed people (aged 20 to 64 years) in their main job in the first three quarters of 2021 in the European Union (EU) as a whole, for all EU Member States individually, as well as for three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and one candidate country (Serbia).

Statistics on the volume of working hours provides an economic perspective to employment as it represents an estimate for the labour input to the production. Reporting on quarterly data allows for a short-term assessment of shocks on the working life and economy.

Results presented in this article come from the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS). Since the first quarter of 2021, all countries participating in the survey have harmonised their questionnaire with regard to the collection of the working hours; this information is consequently collected in the same way in all countries, ensuring enhanced comparability and quality of the results.

This article is part of the online publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic - quarterly statistics.


Full article


Differences in the length of the actual working week

In the EU, during the third quarter of 2021, employed people, aged 20-64, spent in work 37.0 hours on average per week, with 0.8 hours more when compared with the previous quarter. These numbers refer to the hours people have actually spent in work activities in the main job during the surveyed reference week. Note that the "actual hours of work" can differ from the "usual hours of work", which are the modal value of the actual hours worked per week over a long reference period (one to three months), excluding weeks when an absence from work occurs (e.g. holidays, leaves, strikes, etc.).

The EU average of the actual working hours per week hides many differences among countries (see Map 1). The longest weeks of work among the EU Member States, of 39.5 hours or more, were found in Bulgaria (39.9 hours), Romania (40.2 hours), Poland (40.8 hours) and Greece (41.6 hours). However, even a longer working week was found outside the EU, namely in Serbia, with 43.4 hours of work on average. In contrast, the shortest weeks, of less than 35.5 working hours, were observed in Belgium (35.1 hours), Germany (35.0 hours), Austria (34.7 hours) and the Netherlands (32.6 hours). The EFTA country Norway (34.9 hours) also stands out with a relatively short working week.

Map 1: Average number of actual weekly hours of work
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhan2)


Map 1 reveals a clear geographical pattern in the length of the average working week, as the Eastern and Southern countries tend to have more hours of work per week than the Western and Northern countries.

Note, however, that the presented average is computed as the total number of actual hours of work divided by the number of employed people having actually worked, i.e. not including people absent from work (for holidays, sickness, temporary lay-off, etc.). If people absent from work are also taken into account in the average, the denominator will be higher while the numerator will remain the same, leading to a considerably lower average when people absent from work are numerous.

It is also worth noting that the average working hours presented in this article include both people working full and part-time. It could be expected that countries with a high share of part-time workers would report shorter average working week for the total employed population. Indeed, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Belgium had the shortest average working week while having the highest shares of part-time workers in the EU during Q3 2021. More information on part-time workers can be found in the article on employment.

Perspective into full and part-time workers

In the vast majority of countries, the length of the average working week of part-time workers is around half the length of the working week of full-timers (see Figure 1). Romania having the longest working week for part-time workers is the starkest exception to this pattern with a relatively closer average working week for full and part-timers - 40.6 versus 28.6 hours.

Figure 1: Average number of actual weekly hours of work in the main job by sex and full-time part-time
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhan2)


As already mentioned, Romania had the longest working week for employed on part-time; in contrast, Portugal was on the opposite side of the scale with the shortest week for this category of workers, comprised of 18.8 hours. On the other hand, the length of the average working week of full-timers ranged from 43.3 hours in Greece to 38.3 hours in Slovakia.

Looking at the gender differences, in all countries, men full-timers worked more hours per week than their female counterparts. The most significant difference among the EU Member States was recorded in Ireland, as men full-timers in this country had 41.5 hours average working week and women 37.5 hours. The gender pattern is not so conclusive regarding employed on part-time: in some countries, women had longer working weeks in some countries was the opposite. Denmark stood out with the largest difference between men and women part-timers - 19.1 versus 22.8 hours.

How the average working week varies across sectors of the economy and groups of occupations?

The length of the average working week measured in numbers of actual hours of work varies across different sectors of the economy, as revealed in Figure 2 (EU level). In Q3 2020, employed people in sector agriculture, forestry and fishing spent the largest number of hours at work - 43.6 hours on average per week. This sector was followed by the sectors mining and quarrying (40.3 hours), construction (40.0 hours) and transportation and storage (39.0 hours), where the average working week of employed people was also relatively long. In contrast, workers in administrative and support service activities (33.9 hours), education (32.5 hours) and activities of households as employers (26.8 hours) had the shortest average working weeks.

Figure 2: Average number of actual weekly hours of work in the main job by economic activity (NACE Rev. 2)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhan2)


Looking at the different groups of occupations (Figure 3), the skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (44.7 hours) and the managers (42.4 hours) stood out with the longest average working weeks in the EU during Q3 2021. On the other end of the ranking, the clerical support workers (34.6 hours) and workers having elementary occupations (32.4 hours) had the shortest working weeks.

Figure 3: Average number of actual weekly hours of work in the main job by occupation (ISCO-08)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)

Qurterly development of the volume of hours

The previous section of the article explored the number of hours each employed person spent in work on average per week. The focus in this section will be the quarterly development of the total number of working hours, i.e. the sum of hours each worker devoted to labour in the main jobs. To capture better the trend in 2021, seasonally adjusted data were used in the following figures.

Figure 4: Quarterly change in the volume of actual hours worked in the main job
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_ahw_q)


Between the first and second quarters of 2021, the total volume of working hours in the EU increased by 1.2 % (see Figure 4). The majority of EU Member States (20 out of 27 countries) also saw an increase in the total volume of hours of work. However, the magnitude of the increase varied a lot across countries: from less than 0.5 % in Slovenia, Lithuania and Luxembourg to 4.3 % in Spain, 6.5 % in Denmark and 9.0 % in Ireland. The volume of working hours remained stable in Austria between Q1 and Q2 2021 and decreased in 5 other EU countries. The Netherlands and Belgium registered the largest decreases, of respectively 3.1 % and 3.2 %.

Fewer countries experienced an increase in the total number of working hours between the second and third quarter of 2021 - 13 EU countries exactly. Furthermore, countries recorded more moderate increases than in the previous quarter-on-quarter development. Among the EU countries, only Belgium (+2.5 %), Estonia and Italy (both +2.3 %) had an increase of more than 2 %. Croatia and Germany had the lowest increases, of less than 0.5 %. In 3 EU countries, the volume of working hours remained stable between the second and third quarter of 2021 - Czechia, Poland and Lithuania. The other 11 Member States reported a decrease, ranging from less than 0.5 % in Greece, Spain and Portugal to more than 2.0 % in Luxembourg (-2.1 %) and Denmark (-3.0 %). For reference, at EU level, the total number of working hours grew by 0.5 %.

Figure 5 shows the quarterly development of the volume of hours worked from Q2 to Q3 2021, this time split by gender. Some countries stood out with a relatively sizeable gender difference in the quarterly change. The most obvious examples here were Estonia and Italy, which had the highest increase in the volume of hours for women among the EU countries - respectively +5.0 % and +4.7 %. At the same time, the quarterly change for men in Estonia and Italy, while also marking an increase, was substantially lower than for women, with respectively 4.8 and 3.7 percentage points. Also, Latvia, where the quarterly change had a different direction for men (+2.8 %) and women (-1.2 %), resulting in a gender difference of 4.0 percentage points. Denmark is also worth mentioning with a gender difference of 3.4 percentage points while recording a decrease for both men (-1.6 %) and women (-5.0 %). Furthermore, the decrease for women in Denmark was the sharpest in the EU.

Figure 5: Quarterly change in the volume of actual hours worked in the main job by sex
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_ahw_q)

Impact of absences from work

One of the key determinants of the total volume of hours worked is the level of absences from work. As can be seen in Figure 8, the number of weekly absences in weeks 11 to 26 during 2020 (end of Q1 2020 and entire Q2 2020) is substantially higher than the average number of absences in the respective weeks in 2015-2019. At the same time, i.e. Q2 2020, the volume of hours worked had its most significant decline.

Figure 8: Weekly absences from work, EU, average 2015-2019, 2020 and 2021
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abt_q)


Although due to a break in time series, data for 2021 are not fully comparable with the previous years, is visible that the number of absences is closer to the average 2015-2019 than to 2020. Still, it can be noticed that the number of absences from week 2 to week 16 in 2021 exceeds the average 2015-2019, especially in weeks 13 and 14. During the following period, weeks 17 to 32 2021, absences gravitate around the average 2015-2019, and during weeks 33 to 39, the number of absences is below the average 2015-2019.

The last figure of this article (Figure 9) shows a country overview of the absences from work on a quarterly basis. To facilitate the international comparison, the number of absent from work people is expressed as a percentage of the employed population in each country.

Figure 9: Absences from work, Q1 - Q3 2021
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_abt_q)


Looking at the development of the percentage of absences in 2021 a couple of patterns can be discerned. Firstly, in 7 EU Member States (the Netherlands, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France), this share increased consecutively from Q1 to Q2 and then from Q2 to Q3, nonetheless, the increase between the first two quarters was substantially milder than the increase between the second and third. On the other hand, the majority of EU countries (the remaining 20), experienced a decrease in the share of absences from work from Q1 to Q2 but an increase from Q2 to Q3.

Another pattern is that in the most of the Member States (22 countries) the share of absences takes its highest values in Q3 2021. This however, was not the case in five EU countries - Bulgaria, Latvia, Ireland, Slovakia and Greece - where people absent from work represented higher percentage of employment in Q1 2021 than in the following two quarters of 2021.

Another relevant finding is that despite the variations of the share of absences in 2021, Bulgaria and Romania were always at the bottom of the scale with the lowest shares in the EU (never exceeding 4 %).

There is also a certain repetition of countries with the highest rates of absences in 2021. In Q1, these were Ireland (20.0 %), Greece (18.1 %) and Slovakia (15.7 %). In the following quarter (Q2), Finland (13.5 %), Ireland (13.4 %) and France (12.0 %), and in Q3 - Sweden (27.8 %), France (23.6 %) and Finland (22.7 %). Sweden is also worth mentioning with the sharpest quarter-on-quarter increase of the share of absences, amounting to +17.2 percentage points between Q2 and Q3 2021.

In addition to the level of absences from work, the level of employment also influences the volume of working hours. Further information on the employment situation in 2021 can be found in the quarterly articles on employment and employed people and job starters by economic activity and occupation.

Source data for tables and graphs

Excel.jpg Figures Hours of work - update November 2021

Data sources

All figures in this article are based on quarterly results from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).

Source: The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing mostly quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between countries.

European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of the EU-27 Member States. If data is unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates is computed with estimates. Such cases are indicated.

Country note: Spain and France have assessed the attachment to the job and included in employment those who have an unknown duration of absence but expect to return to the same job once the COVID-19 measures in place are lifted.

Coverage: The industry sector encompasses ‘mining and quarrying’, ‘manufacturing’, ‘electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ and ‘water supply, including sewerage, waste management and remediation activities’.

Eight different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are available from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in January and February 2020, with the first cases confirmed in Spain, France and Italy. COVID-19 infections have been diagnosed since then in all European Union (EU) Member States. To fight the pandemic, EU Member States have taken a wide variety of measures. From the second week of March 2020, most countries closed retail shops, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. Bars, restaurants and hotels were also closed. In Italy and Spain, non-essential production was stopped and several countries imposed regional or even national lock-down measures which further stifled economic activities in many areas. In addition, schools were closed, public events were cancelled and private gatherings (with numbers of persons varying from 2 to over 50) banned in most EU Member States.

The majority of the preventive measures were initially introduced during mid-March 2020. Consequently, the first quarter of 2020 was the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU was affected by COVID-19 measures taken by the Member States.

In the following quarters of 2020 and 2021, the preventive measures against the pandemic were continuously lightened and re-enforced in accordance with the number of new cases of the disease. New waves of the pandemic began to appear regularly (e.g. peaks in October-November 2020 and March-April 2021). Furthermore, new strains of the virus with increased transmissibility emerged in late 2020, which additionally alarmed the health authorities. Nonetheless, as massive vaccination campaigns started all around the world in 2021, people began to anticipate improvement of the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Statistics on the hours of work add a new dimension to employment. The “average number of actual weekly hours of work in the main job” is an indicator aiming to give a perspective to the social conditions of labour, while the volume of hours worked adds an economic perspective, insofar as it serves as a proxy for the labour input to the production. The quarterly data on hours of work allows to regularly report on the impact of the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the working life and economy.

Please note that in this exceptional context of the COVID-19 pandemic, employment and unemployment as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) might not be sufficient to describe the developments taking place in the labour market. In the first phase of the crisis, active measures to contain employment losses led to absences from work rather than dismissals, and individuals could not look for work or were not available due to the containment measures, thus not counting as unemployed. Only referring to unemployment might consequently underestimate the entire unmet demand for employment, also called the labour market slack, which is further analysed, with namely the evolution of the employment and the recent job starters, in the publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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