Employed people in Bavaria only worked 1,340 hours on average last year. That was six hours less than in the previous year and even 40 hours less than in 2019, as the State Office for Statistics announced on Thursday. “This continues the trend of declining annual working hours per person. The main reason for this is the increasing importance of part-time work,” explained the labor market experts.
Because the number of employed people in Bavaria increased from 7.8 million in 2022 to 7.9 million employed people in 2023, the number of total hours worked still rose by 0.5 percent from 10.5 to 10.6 billion working hours. The growth driver was the service industry with 0.7 percent more working hours.
In 2019, however, 7.7 million employees worked a total of 10.7 billion hours. In a nationwide comparison, Bavarian employees are in the middle range with an average of 1,340 working hours. The leader is Hesse with an average of 1,377 working hours, followed by Thuringia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the last three places are North Rhine-Westphalia with 1,326 working hours, Rhineland-Palatinate with 1,325 and Saarland with only 1,316 working hours per employed person.
The work volume includes the actual working hours of all employees, self-employed people and helping family members. Paid but not taken sick leave, vacation and public holidays are not taken into account. The statistics “do not take into account the intensity or quality of the work performed,” the state office said. The data is based on a calculation by the “State Employment Accounting” working group, which includes all state statistical offices, the Federal Statistical Office and the German Association of Cities.