In the European Union, in 2023, people of working age aged 20-64 worked an average of 36.1 hours per week, according to Eurostat. This number refers to the hours people worked in their main job, in the reference week.

Average working hours per week vary between EU countries. Those with the longest working week were Greece (39.8 hours), Romania (39.5), Poland (39.3) and Bulgaria (39.0). In contrast, the Netherlands had the shortest working week (32.2 hours), followed by Austria (33.6) and Germany (34.0).

Albanians work the longest hours in Europe. INSTAT data shows that Albanians work longer than anyone else in Europe. In 2023, employees in Albania worked an average of 43.7 hours per week, or 7.6 hours more than the European average. The longest hours are in manufacturing (46.5), agriculture (44.8), and construction (45.6), and the lowest in administration (40).

Turkey ranks after Albania with 43.1 hours. The region generally works longer hours. In Montenegro, employees work 42.8 hours per week, in Serbia 41.3, in Bosnia 41.2, and in North Macedonia almost 40 hours. Although Albanians work longer, they are paid less than everyone else, while both the minimum and average wages are the lowest in the region (no data for Kosovo), according to data made public by Monitor.

In the EU, in 2023, 37.1% of employed people worked an average of between 40 and 44.5 hours per week, while only 7.1% recorded less than 20 hours of actual working hours per week in their main job. The range of 40-44.5 hours of actual working hours represents the largest share in most countries – except Ireland, Finland, Belgium, France, and Denmark, where the majority of employed people were in the range of 35-39.5 hours of average working hours per week.

The same range of hours (40 to 44.5) also shows the largest differences between countries. The largest shares were recorded in Bulgaria (82.2%), Romania (80.2%) and Latvia (77.7%). The lowest percentages were found in Belgium (16.1%), France (13.3%), and Denmark (10.6%).