How much does Switzerland work compared to the rest of the world? These graphs show at least 21 deaths after storms in the Dominican Republic

“🎶 Work, work, work, work, work 🎶” – as Rihanna encouraged seven years ago, the global trend of long working hours seems to continue today. In many countries there has been discussion for years about whether the long working hours that have to be worked are still justified. The new generation in particular wants a change in which there is more room for a ‘work-life balance’. However, the desire for a society that does not only consist of working animals seems utopian at the moment.

There has been a lot of discussion in Korea in recent months about more humane working hours. There was always loud criticism because of the long working hours. But the government has decided to maintain the current system of 52 hours per week. At the beginning of 2023, there was even discussion about increasing working hours to 69 hours per week. Before 2018, a 68-hour work week was normal in Korea.

But there is not only a lot of work going on in Korea. An overview of how much work is being done in Switzerland, Europe and worldwide.

That’s how much Switzerland works

In 2022, 7.922 billion hours were worked in Switzerland. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 1.3 percent. With these figures, the pre-Corona level was reached again. The working hours of Swiss people have fallen by one hour over the past five years to just under 40 hours per week. However, there are areas of work that go far beyond the 40-hour work week. For example, a 45-hour working week was registered in the primary sector in 2022.

The credit and insurance sector also worked more than 40 hours per week compared to 41.4 hours. Working hours in Switzerland depend greatly on the field of work you choose.

This is how Europe works

Compared to other countries, Switzerland works more than average. You also see this in comparison with Europe. No other country in the EU works as many hours as we do. Greece has the highest 41-hour working week in the EU.

Turkey appears to have the strictest working week with almost 43 hours. Switzerland follows with 42 hours. The Dutch work the fewest hours in Europe with only 31 hours per week.

Working hours worldwide

The OECD provides slightly different figures than Eurostat. This is because the calculation methods have been chosen differently. Eurostat figures describe the weekly working hours recorded in a reference week. The OECD figures include the average annual working hours that an employee works. This is calculated on the basis of the actual hours worked per year, divided by the average number of employed persons.

Overall, an employee in Colombia worked the most hours in 2022, around 2,405 hours per year. Employees in Mexico and Costa Rica also spend an above-average amount of time at work, 2,226 and 2,149 hours per year respectively.

An employee in Switzerland works an average of 1,529 hours per year. This puts Switzerland in 33rd place worldwide. This could be partly due to the fact that there are many part-time workers in Switzerland. About 40 percent of all employed people do not have a 100 percent workload. That is more than twice as much as the EU average.

Due to the large number of part-time workers, we do not achieve the most working hours per year compared to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the numbers of daily and weekly working hours are very high. It seems that part-time work achieves a ‘work-life balance’.

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