Archive:Hours of work in detail - quarterly statistics
Data extracted in October 2020
Planned article update: January 2021
Highlights
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
The present article complements the article on Hours of work, with a more detailed analysis of the European labour force survey (EU-LFS) quarterly data on working hours in the main job. The number of average actual weekly hours of work in the quarter are, for example, compared between employees and self-employed persons, as well as across occupations.
Given the level of detail, data used in this article are not seasonally adjusted. For this reason (in order not to be biased by the seasonal effect), data from the last available quarter (second quarter of 2020) are compared with data from the same quarter of the previous year (second quarter of 2019).
Moreover, to increase the level of comparability between countries, the number of the average actual weekly hours of work for the total population in the second quarter of 2019 has been fixed to 100 for each country. Then, the average number of actual weekly hours of work for each subpopulation or breakdown for both the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020 is compared with the value which is fixed on 100 (total population in second quarter 2019) for the concerned country. This method allows a comparison of the different values of the index between the different subpopulations and also between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020.
Nevertheless, the presented indexes do not include those who are employed with zero working hours in the reference week. The average hours of work are indeed only computed on persons having reported working hours in the reference week of 1 hour or more. Furthermore, in this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have been temporarily shut down, people being absent from work and/or in temporary lay-off. To see the effect of the pandemic on the hours of work, evolution of the number of persons included in the average, i.e. number of persons having reported working hours in the reference week of 1 hour or more, should also be taken into account. For this reason, this article also presents the index of average hours of work corrected for employment; this corresponds to an index of the volume of working hours.
The article is part of the online publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic - quarterly statistics and presents results for all the European Union (EU) Member States individually (except Germany for which data is not yet available), as well as for the United Kingdom, three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and three candidate countries (North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey).
Full article
Gender differences in the working hours
Longer working weeks for men than for women in second quarter of 2020
At EU level, in the second quarter of 2020, the average number of weekly working hours for employed persons aged 15 years and older ranged from 92 index points in Austria to 103 index points in Denmark (11 index points difference). These numbers include both part-time and full-time jobs. As the value of 100 for the index has been fixed on the second quarter of 2019 for each country separately, this means that the working time increased from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 in Denmark and in all countries with an index above 100 in the first quarter of 2020. By contrast, in Austria the number of average working hours per week decreased the most between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020 (See figure 1).
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
Taking gender into account, the overall tendency is that men had longer working weeks than women in the second quarter of 2020. Indeed, the index has been fixed on the second quarter of 2019 for the total population. If the index for the male population in a country is above the index for the female population in that country, this means that men have on average a longer working week than women.
When comparing the situation of the second quarter of 2020 with the second quarter of 2019 for the male population, in all Member States, the index of working hours reached a value that was equal to or greater than 100 points. However, Romania (98 index points), Croatia, Portugal and Estonia are the exceptions (all 99 index points). This means that the average working week of men in the second quarter of 2020, was longer than the one of the total population in the second quarter of 2019 for all EU countries, except Romania, Croatia, Portugal and Estonia.
Men in the Netherlands (110 index points), Ireland (109 index points) and Austria (101 index points) had the widest gap between their working hours in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the situation of the total population in the second quarter of 2019 (gap of respectively 13, 8 and 10 index points). In Bulgaria, Lithuania, Czechia, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia and Austria men displayed an index of 100 to 101 points, corresponding to a stable and gender-balanced situation. With regard to women, their index of average working hours was 98 index points or less in all EU Member States. This index ranged from 98 points in Bulgaria, followed by 97 points in Slovenia, Cyprus and Hungary, to 80 points in the Austria, followed by 81 points in the Netherlands. It is to be noted that the Netherlands has a higher rate of female part-timers than in other Member States.
Comparing these outcomes of the second quarter with the results of quarter one (quarter one of 2020 compared to first quarter of 2019), it can be concluded that the pattern of the index on actual working hours by sex did not change profoundly. Men had longer working weeks than women during both quarters, albeit with a few changes in the hierarchy of countries. More detailed information on the results of the first quarter can be found here.
Similar pattern between men and women, but substantial differences across countries
As mentioned in the introduction, figures refer to employed persons having worked at least one hour during the reference week (numbers can be different between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown measures). In order to take also employed people into account, who have worked zero hours in the reference week, figures are corrected by the number of employed persons (figures labelled "corrected for employment"). Only these rates, which are corrected for employment are described in the following sections.
Throughout the first three months of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. In this initial period of the crisis, the average working hours, in terms of the percentage change between the indexes of the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of the previous year, were mostly affected in Italy, Estonia, Luxembourg and Malta. This pattern was observed before and after the correction for employment. By contrast, the Netherlands and Romania were the least affected countries in terms of average volume of working hours during the first quarter of the current year. Overall, the percentage change (corrected by employment, quarter one of 2020 compared with quarter one of 2019) ranged from -0.3 % in the Netherlands to -10.0 % in Italy, reflecting a significant lower impact on of the crisis on working hours than during the second quarter of 2020 (see here for more details). As an illustration, the percentage change of working hours in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the level in the second quarter of 2019, is -6.5 % and -23.2 % respectively (see Figure 2).
During the second quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic continued with a continuation of the impact of measures taken by the government. In this period, the index of the average number of actual working hours per week declined with -14.8 %, compared to the second quarter of the previous year in EU-27 (corrected for employment; see Figure 2).
However, at country level, there was a shift in the ranking of Member States that were more and less affected during the second quarter of the crises compared with the the aforementioned countries that were hit in the first quarter of 2020. In April until June 2020, the working weeks in Portugal, Greece and Spain were mostly afflicted by 26.1 %, -25.6 % and 26.7 % respectively. On the opposite, the index of the average working hours was the least afflicted in Denmark and Sweden with -3.7 % and -4.9 %.
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
Looking at the gender breakdown, at EU-27 level, women were more affected than men with a percentage change of -15.6 (women) and -14.4 (men) between the second quarter of 2020 compared with quarter two of 2019. At country level, women in Portugal were the most affected in terms of total volume of working hours (i.e. average working hours corrected for employment), with -30.3 % change between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, followed by women in Greece (-28.2 %) and Spain (-27.2 %). By contrast, men followed a different pattern across countries than women. In Spain, men registered the largest decrease in working hours, with -26.1 % change in the total volume of working hours, followed by men in Greece (-23.7 %) and Italy (-22.9 %).
Furthermore, women and men in Denmark and Sweden recorded the smallest decrease in the total volume of working hours. Moreover, Danish and Swedish women recorded a smaller decline between the first quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, than their male counterparts (-3.5 % for women and 4.3 % for men in Denmark; -4.2 % and -5.3 % for Swedish women and men). However, similar patterns were found in Belgium (-15.4 % for women and -19.2 % for men), Luxembourg (-8.3 % and -10.3 % respectively), France (-18.8 % and -20.1 % respectively) and Malta (-12.1 % ans -12.5 % respectively). Austria was the only country with no difference in decrease of the total volume of working hours between the two sexes (both -15.4 %).
All in all, the pattern by country and sex has changed over time (percentage change between first quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2019, compared with percentage change between second quarter of 2020 and quarter of 2019). See here for more details.
Changes in the hours of work by professional status
Self-employed persons with employees had the longest working weeks
The professional status is split over four categories: employees, self-employed with employees, self-employed without employees and family workers. In the first quarter of 2020 (January until March), self-employed persons with employees had the highest indexes for the average weekly hours of work in the main job across the EU (see here for more details). This pattern did not change during the period of April-June of 2020, i.e. quarter two (see Figure 3). At EU level, the index was equal to 119 points for this professional status. Moreover, in almost all Member States, the index was equal and above 101 points for self-employed persons with employees, ranging from 101 points in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania to 141 points in Denmark (difference of 40 index points). Hungary (98 index points) and Latvia (96 index points) were the only exceptions, with an index below 100 points (See figure 3).
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
For self-employed persons without employees, the EU-27 has an index of average number of actual working hours per week of 100 points in quarter two of 2020. In the Netherlands, Czechia and Sweden the index was also equal to 100 points, whereas in the majority of the Member States the index was above 100, ranging from 101 index points in Bulgaria to 112 index points in Ireland. In the other countries, the index was below 100 points, with values ranging from 84 index points in Estonia to 99 index points in Finland.
Regarding employees, the index of the average actual weekly hours worked in the EU-27 is less than 100, i.e. 96 index points. Furthermore, 20 Member States had an index of actual hours of work of less than 100 index points in the second quarter of 2020. This means that, for the majority of EU countries, the average working week for employees in the second quarter of 2020 was shorter than the one for the total population in the second quarter of 2019. The lowest value for the index can be found in Austria (98 index points). Member States with an index of 100 points and more are Hungary, Latvia, Finland and Romania (all 100 index points) and Denmark and Cyprus (both 101 index points).
The last group consisting of the contributing family workers corresponded to index points ranging from 44 in Ireland to 106 in Bulgaria.
As a final remark for this part, it can be concluded that the pattern by country and professional status has changed from quarter to quarter, i.e. percentage change between first quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2019, compared with percentage change between second quarter of 2020 and quarter of 2019. See here for more information.
Total hours of work for self-employed persons with employees decreased the most in Malta
At EU-level, the index of actual working hours, in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the second quarter of 2019, was mostly impacted in the group of self-employed persons. In quarter two of the consecutive years, there was a percentage change by -22.5 % and -22.4 % for those with and without employees respectively. Contributing family worker followed and employees followed with a change of -14.1 % and 13.4 %
At country level, the most striking changes by professional status were registered for contributing family workers in terms of the percentage change between the indexes of the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020. Among EU Member States with data available, family workers in Cyprus (with -59.0 % change between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020) and Spain (-55.0 %) faced the largest decreases in their volume of working hours (i.e. index of working hours corrected for employment). By contrast, family workers in Sweden (+78.3 %) and Austria (+59.0 %) faced the largest increases. Please note that in some countries the subpopulation of family workers is small and can consequently lead to results with low reliability (See figure 4).
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
Self-employed persons with employees also saw their volume of working hours change between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020. Malta (-41.4 %), Ireland (-38.0 %) and Cyprus (-37.3 %) underwent the largest decrease while only Latvia (+11.0 %) underwent a large increase. Denmark (-1.6 %), Luxembourg (-2.9 %), Finland (3.9 %) and the Netherlands (8.7 %) recorded the smallest decrease.
In regard to self-employed persons without employees, Cyprus (-39.7 %) again had the largest decrease, followed this time by Ireland (-35.6 %), Spain (-33.7 %) and Portugal (-33.6 %). Latvia repeatedly recorded the biggest increase (+8.4 %).
Employees encountered relatively the smallest degree of changes in working hours (corrected for employment). Percentage ranged from -25.1 % in Spain and -24.5 and -24.3 % in Greece and Portugal to -3.3 % in Denmark and -3.9 % in Sweden. These two last countries showed similar figures when quarter one of consecutive years were compared. In case of Spain, Greece and Portugal, on the other hand, the decrease in working hours, between quarter two of 2020 compared to quarter two of 2019, is more than five times as much than when the first quarters of consecutive years were compared. More information on results related to the first quarter can be found here.
Working hours broken down by occupation
Managers had the longest working hours in second quarter of 2020
In this last section, the focus is put on occupations, split in two groups. Group A includes the managers; professionals; technicians and associate professionals; clerical support workers; and service and sales workers, while group B consists of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; craft and related trades workers; plant and machine operators and assemblers; elementary occupations; and armed forces occupations (See figure 5).
In group A, in the second quarter of 2020, managers displayed an index of average working hours of more than 109 index points in the EU-27. In the majority of Member States, with the exception of Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Poland the index was above 100 points (index points ranged from 95 points for Lithuania to 100 points for Poland). The index points for the other countries ranged from 101 points for Romania, Hungary and Austria to 128 points for the Netherlands and 137 points for Denmark. For comparison, in the first quarter of 2020, manager also had the longest working hours (see here for more information).
Furthermore, the index of working hours for professionals in the EU-27 is 97 index points. In Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland it was above 100 index points (106, 103 and 101 points respectively), whereas for the other countries the index ranged from 86 index points in Greece to 100 index points in Spain and Sweden.
Within group A, the lowest indexes at EU level are found for clerical support workers (91 index points) and service and sales workers (94 index points). Within these two groups, at country level, the lowest index for the average working hours was recorded in the Netherlands (79 index points for service and sales workers) and in Austria (80 index points for clerical support workers). By contrast, their counterparts in Latvia had an index of 103 points (service and sales workers) and 104 points in Greece (clerical support workers).
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
In group B, skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers and the armed forces occupations corresponded to the most extreme index points in the second quarter of 2020 with both 110 index points in the EU-27. For skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, Portugal (80 index points) and Romania (83 index points) registered the lowest values, whereas Ireland (141 index points) and Belgium (139 index points) had the highest. For the armed forces occupations, Slovakia (97 index points), Bulgaria and Belgium (both 98 index points) displayed the smallest values and Cyprus (133 index points) and Austria (126 index points) the largest. Nevertheless, the lowest value of the index over the whole group B can be found for the elementary occupations in the Netherlands, with 63 index points.
Largest impact on service and sales workers in second quarter of 2020
Analysing the percentage changes of the index between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, it appeared that the volume of working hours (i.e. index of working hours corrected for employment) was highly affected for service and sales workers. In the EU-27, it decreased between the two quarters with -28.1 %. This in contrast to the impact on the working time of managers (-15.9 %). This latter group seemed to be hit the most during the first quarter of 2020 (compared with the hours of work during the first quarter of the previous year). More information can be found here.
At country level, the biggest decline in the hours of work for service and sales workers can be observed in Spain (-44.6 %), followed by Cyprus (-44.2 %) and Ireland (-41.8 %). However, service and sales workers in Denmark (-9.3 %), Sweden (-11.1 %) and Romania (-12.7 %) saw their volume of hours of work decreasing to a lesser extent between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020 (See figure 6).
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_ewhais)
As already mentioned before, managers were hit the most during the first quarter of 2020. In the second quarter of 2020, however, a decrease in working hours was recorded in all EU Member States, except Luxembourg where the hours of work increased instead with 10.9 %. Italy was the country where managers faced the largest decrease in their working hours (-31.6 %), followed by Portugal (-28.4 %), Ireland (-27.2nbsp;%) and Greece (-26.5 %).
The group of clerical support workers encountered a decrease of 13.2 % in their working hours. Variations exist across the Member States: in Slovenia, Spain and Greece the working hours decreased by around 25 % (25.1 %, 25.3 % and 26.6 % respectively). On the other hand, the working hours were significantly less affected in Denmark (-1.4 %) and Finland (-1.8 %). For Latvian clerical support workers, there was even a rise in the actual hours of work by +5.7 %.
For technicians and associate professionals, the percentage change for the index of working hours corrected for employment was -9.7 for the 27 Member States on average. The change in percentages ranged from -3.8% in Finland and -3.9 % in Sweden to -22.8 % and -25.5 % in Malta and Portugal.
Professionals were the least impacted in the second quarter of 2020 (compared to the second quarter of 2019; corrected for employment). The percentage changed in working hours ranged from -20.9 % in Greece to +12.3 % in Hungary.
Focusing on group B, workers in elementary occupations (those involved in simple routine tasks like cleaners) in the EU-27, decreased their total working hours by -25.8 %. In Ireland and Portugal the largest decrease in working hours took place in the second quarter of 2020 with -44.5 % and -42.5 % respectively. In Latvia and Luxembourg the decline in the index of total hours worked was the least with -6.4 % and -6.2 %.
Craft and related trades workers (-19.8 %) and plant and machine operators and assemblers (-20.1 %) compile the second group of workers for whom working hours were affected in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the working hours recorded in the second quarter of the previous year. Ireland recorded the largest increase in the volume of working hours for both occupation types: -40.5 % (craft and related trades workers) and -35.1 % (plant and machine operators and assemblers). Latvia, on the other hand showed the smallest decrease for craft and related trades workers (-3.9 %), whereas Croatia recorded as the only country an increase in the change in working hours in the second quarter for plant and machine operators and assemblers (+9.2 %).
In the EU-27, skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers underwent a decrease in working hours of -4.7 % in the second quarter of 2020 (compared to the second quarter of 2019; corrected for employment). The percentage change in working hours at country level, ranged from -36.3 % in Slovakia to +10.5 % in Sweden.
Finally, those in armed forces occupations were hit the least in their working hours (-4.3 % at EU-level. However, this type of occupations showed extreme values for the changes in volume of working hours: the percentage change in Czechia corresponded with +83.4 % (see Figure 6, corrected for employment), while in Portugal the change of the index of working hours was equal to -43.1 %.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
All figures in this article are based on detailed quarterly survey results from European labour force survey (EU-LFS).
Source: The European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing 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.
Definitions: The concepts and definitions used in the labour force survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation.
Five different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are linked from the overview page of the online publication EU labour force survey.
Context
The COVID-19 virus hit Europe in January and February 2020, with the first cases confirmed in Spain, France and Italy. COVID-19 infections have now been diagnosed 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, most countries closed retail shops apart from supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. Bars, restaurants and hotels have also been closed. In Italy and Spain, non-essential production was stopped and several countries imposed regional or even national lock-down measures which further stifled the 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 50) were banned in most Member States.
The large majority of the prevention measures were taken during mid-March 2020 and most of the prevention measures and restrictions were kept for the whole of April and May 2020.
The first quarter 2020 is consequently the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU has been affected by COVID-19 measures taken by the Member States.
Employment and unemployment as defined by the ILO concept are, in this particular situation, not sufficient to describe the developments taking place in the labour market. In this first phase of the crisis, active measures to contain employment losses led to absences from work rather than dismissals, and individuals could not search for work or were not available due to the containment measures, thus not counting as unemployed.
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