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Home office in pandemic times: Average working hours fell by more than 50 hours
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / DPA
The volume of work in Germany fell more sharply in 2020 than ever before.
Short-time work, leave of absence and less overtime ensured that the work performed in the Corona year fell significantly - at least on paper.
The number of working hours fell by 4.7 percent to 59.64 billion, as the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) announced.
According to the IAB, this is due to the enormous number of short-time workers.
According to initial projections, a total of around 2.9 million people were on short-time work in 2020 - significantly more than in 2009, the year of the financial crisis.
At that time, around 1.1 million employees were on short-time work.
According to the IAB, the average working time per employed person fell by more than 50 hours last year, the lowest level since reunification.
The average annual working time of those in employment was 1332 hours and thus decreased by 3.7 percent compared to the previous year.
More vacation, more sick leave
For the first time in 16 years, the number of people in employment also fell.
In 2020 it fell by 1.1 percent to an annual average of 44.8 million people.
On the other hand, the sick leave rate of 4.4 percent was only slightly above the previous year's level.
The number of paid and unpaid overtime fell significantly in the past year, but there were more holidays and other leave of absence than in 2019. "With short-time work, other exemptions and less overtime, a large part of the economic shock on the labor market could be absorbed," said the researchers of the IAB.
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rai / dpa / AFP
