Germany updates: Merz attends papal inauguration Mass – DW – 05/18/2025
Skip next section Workers in Germany work fewer hours than most international counterparts — IW
05/18/2025
May 18, 2025 Workers in Germany work fewer hours than most international counterparts — IW
In 2023, working-age residents of Germany worked an average of 1,036 hours, figures from an economic research institute showed on Sunday.
Only workers in two other of the 38 OECD countries put in fewer hours: 1,027 hours in France and 1,021 hours in Belgium, according to statistics from German Economic Institute (IW) quoted by the weekly Bild am Sonntag.
New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Israel had the most industrious workers, with 1,402, 1,326 and 1,312 hours of labor respectively performed by each working-age individual on average.
Workers in Germany are spending longer working than they did just over 10 years ago, when the average was 1,013 hours.
That increase over the past decade has been far more marked in other European countries, however, with a 15% rise in Spain, 21% in Greece and 23% in Poland, compared with 2% in Germany.
The IW said it was "necessary to raise individual working hours in Germany."
The statistics come as new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently triggered a debate on working hours, calling on workers to make "a huge effort" and put in more time.
Business leaders have fueled the debate by calling for a public holiday to be canceled.
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