Agriculture has longer working hours than any other sector in the EU, including mining and construction.

A recent study has found that the longest average working weeks are in agriculture, forestry and fishing (each with an average of 41.2 hours per week).

This was followed by mining and quarrying (38.9 hours) and construction (38.6 hours).

By contrast, the shortest average working weeks were observed in activities of households as employers (27.1 hours), education (31.8 hours) and arts, entertainment and recreation (32.7 hours).

The Eurostat survey, looking at 2025, found the actual weekly working hours of EU full-time and part-time workers aged 20-64 in their main job averaged 35.9 hours, down from 36.9 hours in 2015. 

Looking at the EU countries, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.6 hours), Bulgaria and Poland (both 38.7) and Lithuania (38.4).

By contrast, the Netherlands had the shortest working week (31.9 hours), followed by Denmark and Germany (both 33.9) and Austria (34.0). 

The range of 40–44.5 “actual working hours per week” represented the largest share of employed people in most countries, with the highest proportions recorded in Bulgaria (82.8%), Latvia (77.1%) and Romania (75.5%).

Exceptions were observed in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France and Ireland, where the largest share of employed people worked on average between 35 and 39.5 hours per week.

Occupations

Looking at occupations (as opposed to industries), the occupations with the longest working week in the EU were skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (42.0 actual working hours), managers (40.6) and armed forces occupations (39.4).

Conversely, the shortest working weeks were recorded in elementary occupations (31.8), clerical support workers (34) and service and sales workers (34.5).

There was also a disparity between self-employed and employed workers.

At EU level, in 2025, self-employed people with employees (i.e., employers) recorded the longest average usual working week in their main job, at 46.4 hours, followed by self-employed people without employees (also known as ‘own-account workers’) with 39.7 hours.

By comparison, employees worked an average of 36.6 usual hours per week.