A report on international labour that was given by Taiwan’s Ministry of Labour (MOL), shows that the average annual working hours of all employees in Taiwan grew from 2,000 hours in 2021 to 2,008 hours in 2022. This place made Taiwan the sixth-longest among the 39 countries analysed.
Taiwan’s average yearly working hours began to gradually decline from 2,135 hours in 2014 to 2,000 hours in 2021. Therefore, marking it the country’s first increase in eight years.
Top five economies with the longest average working hours in 2022
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Columbia (2,381 hours)
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Mexico (2,355 hours)
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Singapore (2,293 hours)
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Costa Rica (2,242 hours)
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Chile (2,026 hours)
Related link: Will Singapore Expand The Number Of Work Permits For Particular Job Categories?
Six economies with shorter average working hours in 2022
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39th – Germany (1,295 hours)
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38th – Denmark (1,360 hours)
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37th – Netherlands (1,361 hours)
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36th – Austria (1,369 hours)
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35th – Sweden (1,401 hours)
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34th – Norway (1,409 hours)
Taiwan’s yearly working hours were lower in Asia than Singapore’s (2,293), but higher than those of South Korea (1,904 hours, ranked eighth among 39 economies), Japan (1,626 hours, ranked 18th), and South Korea (ranked ninth).
According to Huang Wei-chen, Director of the MOL’s Department of Labour Standards and Equal Employment, cited by Taiwan’s CNA, the lower 2021 figure in Taiwan resulted from weak domestic consumption caused by the escalating COVID-19 pandemic, which led to business downsizing in the lodging and food/beverage industry, retail and wholesale industry, as well as many firms putting employees on furlough. However, when the fears surrounding COVID-19 subsided, these domestic demand-oriented industries gradually went back to normal and increased their working hours in 2022.
According to Huang, another interesting factor that has contributed to Taiwan’s exceedingly long average yearly working hours is the small number of part-time workers compared to other countries. It accounted for only 3.5% of the total workforce.According to the survey, Japan had 25.1%, South Korea had 16.4%, and Singapore had 10.5%.
Lastly, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Labour Force in Singapore report, data from other economies, and the MOL were all used to produce the data from the 39 countries.
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