With high demands also come higher weekly working hours
Our figure of the month 08/2024
As part of our July 2024 figure of the month, we looked at the differences in earnings between the level of requirements by industry as a small but sometimes significant decision criterion for the choice of training and the associated entry into a career. Following on from this, this month we are looking at the average differences in working hours in 2023, which, in addition to pay, can also have a decisive influence on the choice of career and industry.
| On average, 38.4 hours are worked per week in the economy as a whole (black lines). The highest average weekly hours are worked in public administration and defence with 39.8 hours, followed by transport and storage and water supply with 39.6 hours. The lowest weekly hours are worked in the construction industry and in the area of commercial and other, predominantly personal services. As hourly wages rise steadily with increasing demands on the work to be performed, it would be expected that the average working hours would develop uniformly. In the economy as a whole, however, the average hours worked per week rise from 37.4 hours for unskilled labour to 38.2 hours for skilled labour, 38.8 hours for specialists and 39 hours for expert labour. A comparable distribution can be seen in almost all sectors of the manufacturing industry. The number of hours worked per week by job level is almost the same, especially within the manufacturing sector. A similar picture, but with greater differences in weekly hours, can be seen in agriculture and forestry, construction and other business services. In these sectors, the difference between helpers and experts is more than twice as high as in the economy as a whole. However, the weekly working hours are distributed completely differently, for example in real estate and housing, energy supply, transport and storage and health and social work. In the real estate and housing sector, helpers work far longer (39.6) compared to the other job levels. Followed by experts with 38.7 hours, ahead of skilled workers with 38 hours. Specialists work the fewest hours per week in the sector at 36.9. |
But where do these differences come from?
The reasons for the uniform distribution of weekly working hours within the manufacturing and construction industries may be the similar to uniform collective agreements, which were concluded with a focus on the physical labour of skilled workers and helpers. The situation is different in the healthcare and education sectors, for example, where labour shortages and shift and on-call work lead to high weekly working hours, especially for skilled workers and experts.
Nevertheless, job and training decisions should not be made solely on the basis of the expected hours. These can quickly shift again due to changes in demand or a higher labour supply. Regardless of the level of demand, it can also be far more sustainable to take up a job in which the hours are willingly worked than as a pure obligation.
Other figures can be found here.