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Actual working hours vary considerably

News
Posted on 28 May 2012, 11:00
The average working week of men is three hours longer than that of women. A half of males employed and a third of females employed work overtime. This has been proved in Statistics Estonia’s publication “Time Use of the Population of Estonia” published today.

In the Time Use Survey 2010, the actual working hours of employed persons were surveyed during one week. The results of the survey show that 26% of employees worked for 35–40 hours a week, which could be regarded as standard full-time work. 42% of employed persons worked more and 32% less than that. On the average men worked three hours and six minutes longer a week than women. Partly the reason is that women are more likely to have part-time jobs, also it is usually women who stay at home to care for sick family members.

Employees with primary and basic education spent on average 3 hours and 20 minutes more per week on work than employees with higher education. The working week was longer in agriculture, trade, hotels and restaurants, and in transport and construction activities.

Overtime work (over 40 hours a week) was performed by 42% of employed persons and 13% of employed persons had extremely long working week (over 48 hours). 49% of male and 37% of female employees worked overtime. Every sixth male and every tenth female employee worked over 48 hours a week. The young employed and the employed with lower level of education have a greater risk of long working hours.

Three quarters of employees start their workdays between 7 and 9:30. 8 o’clock is the most common time for starting workdays as 38% of the employed start work at that time. 13% of employees start work at 9 o’clock. The most common end time of work is 17 o’clock when 24% of employees finish their daily work. Different from the start of the workday, the end times of workdays are still dispersed over a longer period. For example, every tenth employee is still at work at 20 o’clock.

The Time Use Survey was conducted from April 2009 to March 2010 and it covered 7,000 respondents. The analysis of working hours is based on Time Use Survey weekly diaries, where the respondents were asked to mark their actual working hours during one week.

The presentation of the publication “Time Use of the Population of Estonia” for the journalists will take place today, on 28 May at 13:00 in the Information Centre of Statistics Estonia (Tallinn, 15 Endla St, ground floor).