Average annual hours worked · Germany

## What this measures

This series reports the average annual hours actually worked per person in employment in Germany, covering both employees and self-employed workers. It reflects actual hours worked in a year, not contracted or usual hours.

## Background

Total hours actually worked in the year divided by the average number of people in employment (employees and self-employed), from national labour force surveys and accounts, compiled by the OECD (dataflow DSD_HW@DF_AVG_ANN_HRS_WKD). Levels differ in method across countries, so compare each country's trend rather than levels between countries. Annual; synced monthly by /api/cron/worldbank-sync with a DBnomics mirror as fallback.

## Why it matters

Workforce utilization shapes capacity, labor costs per unit of output, and the relationship between headcount and activity. Changes in hours per worker can signal shifting norms around part-time work, overtime, or work-life arrangements that affect recruitment, scheduling, and productivity planning.

## How to read it

A rise means the average employed person worked more hours in the year; a fall means fewer. Because measurement methods vary across countries, compare trends within Germany over time rather than Germany's level against other countries.

## What it does not say

This series does not distinguish full-time from part-time workers, does not report contracted or paid hours, and does not show how hours are distributed across industries or occupations.

## Source

The OECD compiles this series from German national labour force surveys and accounts. Palanor pulls OECD data through the OECD SDMX API under a CC BY 4.0 license.