Albanian employees, both men and women, have the longest working hours in Europe, reaching up to 50 hours a week.

Findings on working hours were published in a recent European Commission report on working conditions and future implications. The survey is carried out once every five years through surveys of 70,000 workers in 36 European countries.

This includes EU member states, the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Albanian men work about 50 hours a week, while women work about 45 hours a week.  Greeks, Serbs, Montenegrins, Romanians and citizens of Kosovo are ranked after Albanians.

The high working hours in Albania seem to be related to two factors, firstly work even during weekends and secondly the high level of self-employed, which Albania has a record in the region with about 36% of the total number of employees (Note by Monitor  ).

According to the report, on average, in the EU-27 men reported working just over 42 hours per week, while women worked approximately 37 hours.

The classic 40-hour week remained standard in 2021 in the vast majority of countries, except for France (35 hours), Denmark (37 hours), Norway (38 hours) and Switzerland (42 hours).  About 20% of all workers (31% of women and 12% of men) worked 34 hours or less per week.

In 2021, about half of men and women worked between 35 and 40 hours a week.  On average, the self-employed spent 6.4 hours more in paid work (4.3 hours more for women and 6.9 hours more for men) than employees.

The report states that long working hours are associated with health conditions such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and coronary heart disease and can affect the balance between work and other aspects of life.

In 2021, 19% of workers in the EU27 (13% of women and 24% of men) reported working 48 hours or more per week.  The percentages among the self-employed were higher: 52% of men and 35% of women.

Extended working hours were reported by more than half (58%) of the self-employed with employees, 40% of the sole self-employed and about 14% of the employed.

Long hours were most frequently reported by workers in agriculture, plant and machinery managers and operators, and in the agriculture, transport and construction sectors.  Long hours were also more common in micro-workplaces than in larger workplaces.

The proportion of workers who reported working 48 hours or more per week varied greatly by country: 34% of workers in Greece, 26% in Romania, 24% in Poland and 23% in the Czech Republic, but only 10% of workers in the Netherlands and  9% in Denmark.

In 2021, a five-day working week was the norm for men and women in all EU Member States.

Women in the Netherlands are an exception, as most of them usually work four days a week.

The vast majority of workers (70%) reported working a five-day work week, while the rest were almost evenly split between working four days or less (16%) and working six or seven days (15%) per week  .

A four-day work week, which has been largely discussed as a mechanism to improve worker well-being and work-life balance and potentially create more jobs and reduce unemployment, was reported by approximately 8% of workers in  EU27 (6% of men and 10% of women).

(Source: Monitor)