Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 31 
Figure 8: Hours worked per week of full-time employment, EU27 – Eurostat 
  
 
The commuting time between home and workplace is quite stable;  in 2005 at EU27 level , it stood at 
42.4 minutes, and in 2015 Eurostat reports 40.2 minutes (time for both ways, to the workplace and 
back).19  
Work at atypical working times is in general regarded as a working condition with negative health 
impact, called work extensity. The two major indicators of atypical working times are work at ‘atypical 
working times’ and ‘long working hours’. 
Eurostat reports for ‘Employment at atypical working time’ 20 a minor decrease between 2011 and 
2019, from 38.8% to 37.2% ( EU27), for all employed workforce and all types of such atypical time. 21 
Some groups of self-employed show a higher rate of atypical working times but also for most of the 
categories of self-employed the rates decreased during the period 2011 to 2019. High managerial self-
employed had a slight increase from 42.1% to 43.2% in this period. For the low managerial self -
employed Eurostat finds a decrease from 69.2% to 64.5%.  The figures for  small entr epreneurs 
dropped slightly from 56.6% to 54.1%, the same applies for employed persons in personal care work  
with a minor change (50.6% to 49.8%). Agricultural self- employed had the highest level of such 
working times; they showed a decrease from 68.4% to 63.4%. 
The length of the daily or weekly working time, its allocation over the 24 hours of a day or at night are 
important factors for health and wellbeing. The statistical data (Eurostat) show a slight decrease of the 
average weekly working time for full-time employees (15-64 years) from 40.2 to 39.9 hours between 
2006 and 2019. 22 The data also document slight increases and decreases of work at atypical times  
(response option for frequency: ‘usual’). 23 In 2006 and 2019, the following percentages of all employed 
persons worked at atypical times: on Saturdays the percentage decreased from 28% to 25%, working 
on Sundays remained stable at around 13.5%, working in the evenings decreased from 19% to 15%, 
work at night fell from 7% to 5% and shift work increased slightly from 17% to 18%.24