They might not have much else in common, but there’s one thing that millions of people working in Germany can agree on: they’re unhappy with their working hours. 

2,2 million want to work more; 1,4 million want to work less

According to a new report from the Federal Statistical Agency (Destatis), around 2,2 million people between the ages of 15 and 74 wanted to work more in 2018, thus categorising them as “underemployed”. At the same time, a good 1,4 million people said that they wanted to work less, making them “overemployed”. 

Overall, underemployed people worked an average of 28,9 hours per week and wished to work 10,6 hours more. In contrast, overemployed people worked an average of 41,6 hours per week and wanted a reduction of 10,8 hours - almost exactly the same! 

According to Destatis’ data, full-time employees in Germany had an average weekly working time of 41,4 hours in 2018, while part-time employees worked 20,0 hours per week. 

Clear gender and regional differences 

However, the data also showed clear differences between the sexes and regions. For example, the average weekly working time for full-time male employees in the West is 42,0 hours, compared to 41,5 hours in the East. Full-time male employees in the West want to reduce their hours more than those in the East (-11,5 hours compared to -10,3 hours). 

Weekly working hours were also slightly higher for women working full-time in the West (40,3 hours) compared to women in the East (40,01 hours). On the other hand, women working part-time in West Germany (20,0 hours) work fewer hours per week than women working part-time in East Germany (24,4 hours). Despite the fact that they work fewer hours, part-time female workers in West Germany generally express less of a desire to increase their working hours.