Working-age Swiss put in more hours than in 2010

In 2019, women worked around 7% more than in 2010. Keystone/gaetan Bally

Swiss people of working age worked around 1.5 days more per year in 2019 than in 2010. The main reason for this is the number of women who have entered the labour market and who have worked longer hours.

According to a study from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the annual working time per Swiss person of working age rose from 1,275 to 1,287 hours between 2010 and 2019. This accounts for an increase of around 1.5 working days per person.

The FSO analysis was conducted at the request of the CH media newspapers, and it was made available to the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Friday. The data collected show that women aged 15 to 64 are mainly responsible for this increase.

In 2019, women worked 1,026 hours, which corresponds to an increase of around 7%, so eight working days more per person compared to ten years ago. On the other hand, for men annual working hours decreased to 1,544 hours over the same time period, so by around 3%.

The working hours peak in Switzerland was recorded in 2016, when people reached 1,299 hours per year, which is 24 hours or about three working days more per person than in 2010.

Looking at the annual working time of those in paid work, the figure decreased by 63 hours per person between 2010 and 2019, which corresponds to about 7.5 working days. However, this calculation doesn’t take into account housewives, whose working time wasn’t calculated in this statistic.