European Central Bank research finds euro area average hours worked remain 1.8% below 2014 as long-hour work declines and zero-hour weeks persist

The European Central Bank published Economic Bulletin research analysing why average hours worked per employee have fallen across most euro area countries since 2020 and remain below pre-pandemic levels. Using European Union Labour Force Survey data, the analysis points to changes at the tails of the hours distribution rather than a broad-based shift in “core” working hours. National accounts data show that by the fourth quarter of 2024 average hours worked were still 1.8% lower than a decade earlier, even as employment rose by 13.1% (about 19.9 million people), allowing total hours worked to increase. Labour Force Survey data through 2023 show average hours worked remained 0.6 hours per week (1.8%) below 2014, largely reflecting a fall in the share of employees working more than 49 hours per week from 6.5% to 3.7% and, during the pandemic, a higher proportion of employees reporting zero hours in the reference week. Around one-third of the 2022 shortfall in average hours worked was linked to zero-hour weeks, but this contribution was broadly neutral in 2023, and excluding both zero-hour and long-hour employees implies average hours worked were slightly higher in 2023 than in 2014. The report notes cross-country differences, with zero-hour weeks still elevated in Spain and France, which it links to regulatory changes that increased irregular-hours arrangements, alongside slightly higher sick and parental leave rates, while declining preferences for long hours suggest some persistence in the downshift even though weaker labour demand may also have played a role after the pandemic.