In 2020, the number of actual hours worked in the main job in the EU decreased by 12.0% when compared with 2019. This decrease can be explained by the measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led many people to alternate between periods of work and periods of absence from work in 2020. As a result, more people worked fewer hours than usual and were absent from their jobs.
At the national level, there was a decline in hours worked across all Member States. The highest declines were recorded for Greece (-19.7%), Spain (-19.5%), Portugal and Italy (both -19.0%).
The EU countries where there was little change in hours worked (with a reduction of less than 5%) were: Finland (-4.4%), Denmark and Luxembourg (both -4.1%) and the Netherlands (-3.2%).