More than a quarter of Germans work at weekends

Some 27% of Germans work at the weekend, at least occasionally, according to new data from the federal statistics office (Destatis), covering the year 2023.

According to the data, weekend work was most common in the hospitality (70%), arts, entertainment and recreation (55%), and retail sectors (47%).

At least a quarter of all employees work at least occasionally on Saturdays, while 15% work Sundays, and 6% work on public holidays.

Labour Day

The data was compiled by Destatis ahead of Labour Day (1 May), a public holiday that traditionally focuses on employment conditions around the world.

When examined by gender, the rate of weekend work was similar – with 27% of women and 26% of men working at the weekend.

Female employees were notably active in the hospitality (67%), retail (52%), and arts and entertainment (51%) sectors, while among men, 74% in hospitality, 60% in arts and entertainment, and 46% in health and social services worked weekends at least occasionally.

Shift work

Aside from working at the weekend, atypical working hours were also recorded – some 25% of employees worked evenings (6 pm to 11 pm), 15% worked shifts, and 9% worked nights (11 pm to 6 am). Men reported slightly higher rates of evening (28%), shift (16%), and night work (12%) compared to women (23%, 13%, and 6%, respectively).

‘Just over half (51%) of employees in the hospitality sector worked evening shifts in 2023,’ Destatis noted. ‘In the arts, entertainment, and recreation sectors, the figure was 46%, and in the health and social services sector, just over a third (34%).

‘Shift work was frequently performed by employees in the health and social services sector (28%), transport and warehousing (24%), and hospitality (21%). Night work was particularly common in the transport and warehousing (22%), health and social services (16%), and hospitality (13%) sectors.’

In terms of how Germany measures up with the rest of Europe when it comes to shift work, Greece (36%), Romania (34%), and Croatia (33%) reported the highest shift work rates in the bloc, while Denmark boasted the lowest.

Across the EU in total, some 18% of employees worked shifts in 2023, slightly more than Germany’s 15%. Read more here.