While employees worked an average of 359.5 hours per quarter for 2019, it was less than 357 hours in the first quarter of this year. Moreover, the difference appears to be persistent and the number of hours worked per person is no longer increasing.
The global figure hides major differences between sectors. In healthcare, a sector where the average number of hours per employee is already lower anyway, the decrease since the pandemic has been the greatest. The volume of labor per employee is also noticeably lower in industry, public services and education. The construction, communication professions and banking and insurance are above the pre-corona level.