Working hours: IAB: Recently worked fewer overtime hours than ever before

Employees in Germany worked fewer overtime hours in the third quarter of 2024 than ever before. This emerges from the working time calculation of the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) in Nuremberg. On average, each employee worked 3.3 paid and 3.9 unpaid overtime hours.

Since the pandemic, the number of overtime hours per employee has fallen by more than a third, according to the IAB. The 46.1 million employed people worked 15.7 billion hours in the third quarter of this year – 340.7 hours per person. The values ​​were at the level of the previous year.

On the other hand, the number of people with secondary employment has noticeably increased. It rose by 1.2 percent compared to the third quarter of 2023 to now 4.6 million employees. The part-time rate also increased by 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous year to 39.7 percent. The number of part-time employees increased by 1.1 percent, while the number of full-time employees fell by 0.4 percent.

“The labor market is divided into two parts: almost 100,000 full-time jobs fewer than a year ago – but almost 200,000 more part-time jobs. The industry is in crisis, but education and care are booming,” said IAB expert Enzo Weber.

According to initial preliminary projections, short-time work in the third quarter of this year increased by 89,000 people to 217,000 people compared to 2023. Given the economic weakness, the number of short-time workers has increased in a longer-term comparison. Most of those affected come from the manufacturing industry, especially the metal and electrical industries and mechanical engineering.