Hard Working Germany?

In 2022, the sickness rate in Germany rose by an average of 3.8 working days. It increased further in 2023 and now stands at 24.9 days per year. That is the equivalent of almost 5 weeks.

The average number of vacation days in Germany is 30. That is five more than in France, and 10 more vacation days than in the Netherlands.

With the exception of the first year of the pandemic in 2020, Germans, in 50 years, have never worked as little as they did last year. The average annual working time of those in employment is just 1,342 hours.

As in the previous decade, Germany is once again likely to rank lowest among OECD countries.

In 2022, France, Italy, Spain and Greece all ranked higher, ranging from 1,511 hours worked (France) to 1,886 hours worked (Greece).

The higher sickness rate has depressed growth in Germany by around 1% in each of the last two years.

Without the additional days of absence, German economic output would not have shrunk last year, but would have grown.

In a recent survey, 61% of Germans fear suffering from burnout due to overwork - eleven percentage points more than before the coronavirus pandemic.

One in five (21%) rate the risk of suffering burnout as "high," compared to just 14% before the pandemic.

The number of sick days among Berlin's 120,000 civil servants and public sector employees averaged 38.7 calendar days last year. That was five and a half weeks.

For Berlin firefighters and their administrative colleagues, the average number of sick days is around 60 days, significantly more than twelve weeks.  Meanwhile, police officers took an average of 10 weeks (49.5 calendar days) off sick.