Archive:Hours of work and absences from work - quarterly statistics
Data extracted in December 2020
Planned article update: April 2021
Highlights
During the first quarter of 2020, the labour market was affected by COVID-19 measures taken by Member States. Measures continued during the second and third quarter of the same year. 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, at least in the short term. Therefore, Eurostat was triggered to develop a set of additional seasonally adjusted quarterly indicators which should help to capture the most recent movements on the labour market in the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU).
The recently developed indicators include the total labour market slack, which comprises all persons who have an unmet need for employment either because they are unemployed according to the ILO definition, are close to unemployment while not fulfilling all ILO criteria, or are working part-time and would like to work additional hours. Furthermore, absences from work broken down by reason are published, as well as an index of total actual hours worked in the main job. Recent job leavers and starters, as well as weekly total absences and transitions out of employment, complete the set of recently developed indicators.
In this article, the focus is on the quarterly changes in the actual hours worked in the main job, using an index where the reference (100) is the year 2006. The index indicates the percentage of change in the total actual hours of work in the considered quarter of a year compared to the total actual working hours in 2006. The value of the index is influenced by the number of employed persons in the considered quarter of a year, as well as by the number of hours worked by each of these employed persons. Please note that the presented data is seasonally adjusted.
The aim of this article is to describe the actual hours of work 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), the United Kingdom and two candidate countries (North Macedonia and Turkey).
The article is part of the online publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic - quarterly statistics alongside, amongst others, the articles Labour market slack - unmet need for employment and Absences from work.
Full article
Relative recovery of the working hours at EU level in the third quarter of 2020
Between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020, the index of total actual hours worked in the main job (computed using the year 2006 as reference with an index of 100 points) dropped in the EU-27: from 101.8 index points to 99.0 index points (decrease of 2.8 index points) (Figure 1). This drop, however, is six times less than for the quarter before (between the last quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020), which was equal to 16.1 index points (101.8 index points to 85.7 index points). Since the beginning of the time series (first quarter of 2006), the lowest level of the index can be found in the first quarter of 2013, with 95.1 index points. The second quarter of 2013 was a turning point from which the continuous decline, which was due to the financial and economic crisis of 2008, was followed by an increase in the actual working hours.
Looking at the gender differences, for the third quarter of 2020, men and women appeared to be hit by the COVID-19 crisis in a similar extent in terms of hours of work. The index of total actual working hours for the male population fell from 97.9 to 95.1 index points between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020 (decrease of 2.8 index points) while it dropped for female population, it dropped from 107.9 to 105.2 index points (decrease of 2.7 index points). Nevertheless, a stronger impact for women than for men could be observed in the first quarter of 2020. Indeed, the index decreased by 8.0 index points (from 107.9 to 101.9 index points) from the last quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020 for women, and it only decreased by 4.2 index points (from 97.9 to 93.7 index points) for men. It dropped subsequently by 11.2 index points for both women (from 101.9 to 90.7 index points) and men (from 93.7 to 82.5 index points) from the first to the second quarter of 2020. The values of the index recorded in the third quarter of 2020 (95.1 index points for men and 105.2 index points for women) mean that the total actual hours of work decreased for men compared to 2006 (reference for the index) but increased for women. Nevertheless, the extent of the decrease in Q3 2020 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic is similar for men and women.
Impact on actual working hours at country level
The total actual working hours have been affected differently across countries since 2006. Different patterns can be observed (see Video 1).
Italy was the first European country hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the most impacted during the first three months of 2020. However, the situation changed during the second quarter of 2020, when Portugal appeared to be affected the most compared to 2019Q4. The difference in the total actual working hours between the fourth quarter of 2019 (2019Q4) and the second quarter of 2020 (2020Q2) however, became smaller during the third quarter (2020Q3) for the majority of countries, but the largest decrease was registered for Malta. In Malta, the index of total actual hours worked in the main job decreased from 178.2 index points in 2019Q4 to 162.7 index points in 2020Q3 (decrease of 15.5 index points). As a comparison, the difference in actual working hours in Italy between 2019Q4 (99.6 index points) and 2020Q3 (96.1 index points) was 3.5 index points.
Men in Malta were most affected by the COVID-19 crisis in the third quarter: the Maltese male population encountered a drop from 156.3 index points in 2019Q4 to 138.5 index points in 2020Q3 (decrease of 17.8 index points), while a fall from 239.2 to 229.9 index points (decrease of 9.3 index points) was registered for the Maltese female population over the same period. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 had a smaller impact on the actual working hours than the COVID-19 crisis in this Member State.
Similarly to Malta, Portugal recorded a substantial decrease in the index of total actual hours worked between 2019Q4 and 2020Q3. The index of total actual hours worked decreased from 91.9 index points in 2019Q4 to 84.9 index points in 2020Q3 (decrease of 7.0 index points). This decrease is still bigger then the decline during the first quarter (-5.9 index points compared to 2019Q4), but much less then during the second quarter (-25.2 index points compared to 2019Q4). Furthermore, in Portugal, men were more affected by the COVID-19 crisis than women in terms of hours worked: the male index moved from 86.2 points in 2019Q4 to 78.8 points in 2020Q3 (decrease of 7.4 index points) while the female index decreased from 99.3 points to 92.6 points (decrease of 6.7 index points) over the same period.
By contrast, Czechia and Finland are the EU countries with the smallest impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the hours worked: the index of actual working hours respectively accounted for 99.6 and 99.7 points in 2019Q4 and for 100 and 99.9 points in 2020Q3 (increase of resp. 0.4 and0.2 index points). With this index, both countries are back to a similar level that existed during the first quarter of 2020 (compared to 2019Q4). The index of actual hours worked increased by 0.6 and 0.3 index points for Czechian and Finnish women. Finnish men saw there hours of work increasing as well by 0.1 points, while men in Czechia underwent a decrease of working hours of -1.1 index points.
In Bulgaria and Greece, the index of total hours worked in the main job was affected by the 2008 financial and economic crisis and was even more affected by the COVID-19 crisis (situation in 2020Q3). In Bulgaria, the index reached its highest level of 109.2 points in the first quarter of 2008 and its lowest level of 93.8 points in the fourth quarter of 2012 (difference of 15.4 index points). During the second quarter of 2020, the Bulgarian index reached his lowest level so far (89.8 index points). In contrast, in the third quarter, the index was less but still affected (98.5 points). Before the COVID-19 crisis, the Greek index reached its lowest level in the fourth quarter of 2013, with 76.4 index points. The level was slightly higher in the first quarter of 2020, i.e. 78.3 points. Please note that in the last quarter of 2019 the index accounted for 85.1 index points. However, during the second quarter of 2020, the index dropped to a historically low value of 62.2 index points. In the third quarter, a recovery seemed to have taken place; the index was equal to 83.0 points.
Focus on the quarterly changes
In this section, the change in the total actual working hours between the last quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020 is analysed. This is done in terms of relative changes by taking the last quarter of 2019 as a reference. The percentage change (increase or decrease) between these two quarters is presented. In addition, in Figure 2, the quarterly change between the last quarter of 2019 and the first and second quarter of 2020 are also shown for comparison.
Spain is the most affected country in second quarter of 2020
All Member States, for which data is available, experienced a significant drop in the index of total actual hours worked in the main job in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the last quarter of 2019 (quarterly change of -4.8% at EU-27 level), with Finland being an exception. This all changed drastically during the second quarter. In this aforementioned trimester, at EU-27 level, the drop was six times higher (quarterly change of -15.8 %). In this period, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy were at the top of the hierarchy with quarterly changes ranging from -27.4 % (Portugal) to -24.8 % (Italy).
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Source: Eurostat (lfsi_ahw_q)
In contrast, for the majority countries the decrease declined during the third quarter of 2020, with a change in the hierarchy. During these three months (2020Q3), Malta (-8.7 %), Portugal (-7.6 %), Austria (-5.5 %) and Spain (-5.1 %) recorded the largest declines in the total actual hours worked (2019Q4 taken as a reference). By contrast, Finland and Czechia reported an increase of less than 0.2 % and 0.4 % respectively.
Men hit the hardest
The change in the total actual hours worked in the main job between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020 is more visible at EU level for the male population than for the female population. There was a reduction of -2.5 % in the total actual hours worked for women compared with -2.9 % for men. This is in contrast with the previous quarters, where women were hit harder than men.
Among EU Member States, Malta and Portugal had their men the most affected in terms of total actual working hours in Q3 2020. They registered between 2019Q4 and 2020Q3 a decrease in their total working hours of -11.4 % and -8.6 % respectively. Their female counterparts were less affected. Maltese women showed a drop of 3.9 % and Portuguese women of 6.7 % respectively. The difference between Maltese men and women is most pronounced across Member States (-7.5 percentage points, p.p.). Sweden and Luxembourg follow with -6.1 % for men and -0.9 % for women in Sweden (difference of 5.2 p.p.) and -1.8 % and +1.0 % for men and women in Luxembourg (difference of 2.8 p.p.). Moreover, Portuguese and Irish women were most affected compared to all women across the EU Member States, with a respective decrease of -6.7 % and -5.2 % in their total working hours (2020Q3 compared to 2019Q4).
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_ahw_q)
In Finland, the Netherlands and Czechia, men registered an increase in their total working hours between 2019Q4 and the 2020Q3 (resp. +0.1 %, +0.2 %, +1.1 %). This was only the case for women in Luxembourg and Finland (resp. +0.1 % and +0.3 %).
Although, at EU-level, women seem to be less hit then men, the majority of countries, for which a decrease is observed for both men and women, show that the total working hours for women were still more affected than for their male counterparts at country level. The most obvious examples here are Croatia and Hungary. During the third quarter of 2020, Croatian women show a quarterly change of -4.9 % in their total working hours compared to -1.1 % for their male counterparts. These values were respectively -3.8 % and -1.8 % for Hungarian women and men. In contrast, in Bulgaria, the quarterly changes in total hours of work were equal for both men and women (-1.9 %).
Source data for tables and graphs
Hours of work Q3 2020: Figures and tables
Hours of work Q3 2020: Figures and tables for video
Data sources
All figures in this article are based on seasonally adjusted quarterly 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.
European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-27 Member States.
Country note: In Germany, from the first quarter of 2020 onwards, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is part of a new system of integrated household surveys. Unfortunately, technical issues and the COVID-19 crisis has had a large impact on data collection processes, resulting in low response rates and a biased sample. For this reason, additional data from other integrated household surveys has been used in addition to the LFS subsample, to estimate a restricted set of indicators for the first three quarters of 2020, for the production of LFS Main Indicators. These estimates have been used for the publication of German results, but also in the calculation of EU and EA aggregates. By contrast, EU and EA aggregates published in the Detailed quarterly results (showing more and different breakdowns than the LFS Main Indicators) have been computed using only available data from the LFS subsample. As a consequence, small differences in the EU and EA aggregates in tables from both collections may be observed. For more information, see here.
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 available from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey.
Context
The COVID-19 crisis 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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