More than half of Dutch people work full-time

Last year, there were 9.0 million people in work in the Netherlands. At 31 hours, the average working week has been relatively stable for a decade. 4.6 million people were working full-time, i.e. 35 hours or more in the context of this survey. Employees working full-time are most likely to work between 35 and 40 hours per week. Self-employed persons are more likely to work over 40 hours per week. For example, one-third of the self-employed indicated in 2019 that they worked 40 hours per week, versus 3 percent of the employees.

Over one-quarter of women work full-time

In 2019, 27 percent of women worked full-time, i.e. 24 percent among employees and 41 percent among self-employed. This means that the share of full-time female workers has increased in recent years. In 2016, this share stood at 25 percent. In the same period, the proportion of full-time male workers fell from 74 to 72 percent. The gap between full-time employees and self-employed is narrower among men than among women. Not only are men more likely to work full-time than women, they are also more likely to put in over 40 hours per week.

45 to 54-year-olds most likely to work over 40 hours

In all age categories between 25 and 64 years, more than half are full-time workers. At 61 percent, the proportion of full-time workers is highest among 25 to 34-year-olds. Young people and the over-65s, on the other hand, are more likely to have part-time jobs. The share working more than 40 hours per week is highest among 45 to 54-year-olds, namely 11 percent.

85 percent of managers working full-time

The top 5 occupations with the highest share of full-time workers are managers (85 percent) and occupations in ICT, engineering, public administration, security and legal services, and agriculture. The lowest proportion of full-time workers can be found in education, care and welfare and in services. For example, 10 percent of caregivers and 37 percent of teachers work full-time. These are also professions with a large number of female workers. Occupations with the highest rate of persons working over 40 hours are those in the agricultural sector (31 percent) and managers (23 percent).