Arbeitszeit: Trends, Wunsch und Wirklichkeit

"The labor market is changing: four-day week, quiet quitting, Covid-19, labor shortage, Generation Z - these are just some of the current buzzwords. Working time policy is also affected by these influences. Employees' needs and expectations of working time have changed: a work-life balance is becoming increasingly important, also in terms of satisfaction and productivity. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult for firms to fill vacancies against the background of labor shortages. So, behind the buzzwords, what is the actual trend in working time? Under the impression of Covid-19, generational change and exacerbated labor shortages, is there today the "big trend towards leisure"? Was the pandemic really the big break for this? To answer these questions, we have evaluated the working time preferences of employees over time from 1985 to 2021. The data basis is provided by the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which annually surveys about 30,000 people in almost 15,000 households on economic and sociological issues. All in all, the desired working hours of full-time and part-time employees have remained remarkably stable over the decades. However, in recent years, a trend towards somewhat shorter desired working hours can be observed in full-time employees over time, which has been somewhat reinforced at the current margin by the experience with the pandemic. On average, full-time employed women would have liked to reduce their working hours in 2021 to a slightly higher extent than full-time employed men (-6.2 versus -5.5 hours). Thus, the desired working time of women was on average 34.7 hours, that of men 36.8 hours. With part-time employees, on the other hand, the level of desired working hours has remained relatively stable over time, while hours worked have been increasing for some time. The mean of women’s desired working time is 25.3 hours per week, which is about 2 hours more than 20 years ago. Overall, however, since 2019 their actual working time has been slightly higher on average than their desired working time (2021: 0.8 hours). For men, the desire for longer working hours predominates; in 2021, the desired working time (28.1 hours) was more than one hour higher than the actual working time. Among the marginally employed persons, the desire for longer working hours also clearly predominates, even if working time desires have declined slightly on average in recent years. The difference between actual and desired working time in 2021 was about 4 hours for women and men, but at different hourly levels. If female mini-jobbers were to realise their desired working hours, their working time would be 14.7 hours per week on average, while that of male mini-jobbers would be 17.9 hours per week. In general, however, the trend is less towards common work models such as a four-day week and more towards further diversification. Working time preferences change throughout the course of one’s life, therefore it should be possible to adjust working times individually and according to the phase of life." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))