Per capita workload is increasing and increasing – Stuttgart Journal

In 2021, the volume of work, i.e. the total number of hours worked by all employees, increased in all 44 urban and rural districts in Baden-Württemberg compared to 2020.

As the State Statistical Office determined for the year 2021 according to the latest calculations by the working group »Employment Accounting of the Federal States« at district level, the total number of hours worked in 2021 increased by +4.6% compared to the previous year in the district of Tübingen, the most of all districts. The district of Lörrach showed the weakest growth at +0.1%.

The extent of short-time work was significantly higher in 2020 than in 2021, which is likely to be the main reason for the increase in the volume of work. This was particularly evident in the development of the hours worked per employee.

While an employed person in Baden-Württemberg worked an average of 1,373 hours a year in the pre-crisis year of 2019, it was only 1,305 hours in 2020, which corresponds to a change rate of −5.0%. In 2021, the per capita working time rose again to 1,332 hours (+2.0%).

In the Hohenlohe district, the annual average working time per employee was 1,371 hours in 2021, the highest value nationwide. The district of Heilbronn followed in second place (1,358 hours). The district of Tübingen was at the lower end of the scale.

Here, the annual volume of work per employed person was 1,269 hours in 2021. In the regions of Baden-Württemberg, the range was from 1,296 working hours per employed person in the Hochrhein-Lake Constance region to 1,350 hours in the Heilbronn-Franconia region.

However, the differences in these hours worked per capita should by no means be interpreted as the result of regional differences in the industriousness of the workforce. Rather, the causes can be found in the extent of short-time work and part-time employment, the number of mini-jobs, but also the number of self-employed people.

Depending on the industry, these forms of employment also vary in intensity. Compared to the manufacturing industry, the proportion of part-time employees in the service industries is significantly higher. The average annual working time in 2021 for an employee in the Baden-Württemberg manufacturing sector was 1,432 hours, 151 hours higher than in the service sector. Compared to 2020, the per capita working time increased nationwide in the manufacturing sector by 3.2% in 2020 and by 1.6% in the service sector.

The highest per capita working time in the service sector in 2021 was determined in the urban district of Stuttgart with 1,330 hours, followed by the urban district of Karlsruhe with 1,328 working hours. At 1,219 hours, the rural district of Tübingen had the lowest volume of work per employee in the service sector. The district of Waldshut was second to last (1,227 hours). In the manufacturing sector, the city district of Heilbronn had the highest per capita work volume in 2021 at 1,471 hours, while the district of Tuttlingen had the lowest at 1,412 hours.