The administration is "forced" to stay at work longer, longer hours and for tourism

2025-09-05 07:33:00, Aktualitet CNA

The administration is "forced" to stay at work longer, longer hours

In total, the average number of weekly working hours for an employed person decreased slightly last year to 41.3 hours, from 41.6 hours in 2023.

The agriculture sector leads with the lowest weekly working hours, with 35.5 hours per week in 2024 from 36.5 hours in 2023. Agriculture is a highly seasonal sector, which results in a lower average weekly working hours compared to other manufacturing and trade sectors.

Among the sectors with the lowest workloads is public administration and social services. However, administration remained at work longer in 2024, with weekly hours increasing slightly from 40.3 in 2023 to 40.5 in 2024.

In contrast, the trade, transport, hospitality and business services sector records more hours worked, increasing slightly from 46.7 hours in 2023 to 46.8 hours in 2024. This trend indicates higher work rates in these activities that are closely related to consumption and services and developments in the tourism sector.

The manufacturing sector also maintains a high workload, from 46.6 hours in 2023 to 46.4 hours in 2024, ranking among the sectors with the most hours.

The construction sector follows the same trend, although it has marked a slight decrease from 45.2 hours in 2023 to 45.1 hours in 2024. On the other hand, the extractive industry, energy, gas and water supply mark a slight increase in average hours, from 43 hours in 2023 to 43.2 hours in 2024, reflecting the sustainability of these sectors in terms of both demand and production flows.

Activities such as trade, services and manufacturing, where the workload is high, and on the other hand sectors such as agriculture and public administration, where weekly hours are significantly lower.

In Albania, people work much longer hours than in the EU.

In 2024, Albanian employees had the longest working hours per week compared to the EU. The European Union average, according to Eurostat, was 36 hours per week, about 5 hours less than in Albania.

The countries with the longest weekly working hours were Greece (41 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)./ Monitor