Despite Germany’s weak economy, people worked more hours than ever before in the second quarter of 2024, new figures released on Tuesday showed.
According to the Institute for Labor Research (IAB), the research department of the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesamt für Arbeitsdienstleistungsagentur), the volume of work has risen to 14.7 billion hours. This is higher than before the corona crisis for the first time.
“Never before has so much work been done in Germany – in the middle of an economic recession,” said IAB labor market researcher Enzo Weber.
In the second quarter of 2019, 14.6 billion hours were worked.
“But further growth is not a given,” Weber emphasizes. “Employment growth is leveling off considerably, the part-time rate is climbing to almost 40% and there is less overtime than ever before.”
The number of employed persons increased by 0.4% year-on-year to 46.1 million in the second quarter of 2024. The number of working hours per person increased by 0.4% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, averaging 318.2 hours.
The part-time rate increased by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 39.8%.
The number of part-time workers increased by 1.6%, while the number of full-time workers decreased by 0.3%.
Weber cited an increase in employment in sectors with a high percentage of part-time work, such as health care, social services and education.
At the same time, the average number of overtime hours per employee also fell by 0.3 hours. On average, employees worked 2.9 hours of paid overtime and 4.1 hours of unpaid overtime in the second quarter of 2024.
