Across the EU countries, Greece had the highest share of workers with long hours (11.6%) in 2023, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Long working hours refer to those workers who usually spend 49 hours or more per week at work.

Overall, in 2023, 7.1% of employed people in the EU worked long hours in their main job.

While Greece led the way, this was followed by Cyprus (10.4%) and France (10.1%). Meanwhile, the lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria (0.4%), Lithuania and Latvia (1.1% each). 

The data showed that there was a higher rate of self-employed people worked long hours (29.3% of total self-employed people) compared with employees (3.6% of total employees).

Long working hours were more common among skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (27.5% of all skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers) and managers (21.9%). All other occupational groups, as defined by the international standard classification of occupations (ISCO) averaged up to 7.3%.