The average working time of employees throughout the country is 43 hours per week, among which the sectors real estate, supporting services, art, entertainment and leisure are the sectors with the longest working time. The professions with the longest working hours are service staff and salespersons, elected representatives, administrative executives, business executives, managers, machine operators and assembly workers.

     In September 2010, the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), a unit of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) of the Executive Yuan, conducted a survey to assess the situation of safety and health in the working environment. The researchers collected data concerning the working hours of employees throughout the country, and analyzed and evaluated the relevant factors. The results show that employees nationwide work 43 hours per week on average. Depending on the various industrial sectors, the average working times are different. The highest numbers of average working hours were found in the sectors real estate (46.9 hours), supporting services (45.9 hours) and art, entertainment and leisure (45.3 hours). There are also differences between the professions. Service staff and salespersons work 46.7 hours per week on average, followed by elected representatives and administrative and business executives and managers (44.5 hours) and machine operators and assembly workers (43.7 hours).

     The research supports the “National Human Resource Survey” launched by the Executive Yuan. In total, there were 28,077 respondents, and 24,427 questionnaires were returned, which means a return rate of 87%, among which were 18,899 employees, mainly from the manufacturing sector (6,049), and 5,528 respondents being self-employed people or employers.

     Through multivariate regression analysis, the research found the following results:
1. The average weekly working time of male employees exceeds those of females by 0.5 hours;
2. The working time of people aged 25-39 surpasses the working time of the other age groups by 0.4-1.1 hours;
3. The higher the level of education, the lower the average working hours per week, e.g. employees with a Master’s degree per week work 1.8 hours less than people with a high-school degree;
4. Shift workers work about 1.1 hours more per week than people with fixed working time;
5. People who feel they do not get enough sleep work 0.9 hours per week more than the average;
6. People who do regular exercise work 0.6 hours less per week;
7. In comparison with regular employees, contract employees, students with part-time jobs and substitute employees work about 1.2-3.8 hours less than the average, but contract and dispatch laborers work 1.2-1.3 hours more;
8. Workers without basic salary work about 1.4-4.3 hours less than workers with basic salary;
9. People who describe themselves as “often experiencing pressure at work” work 2 hours more than people who “never” or “seldom” experience pressure;
10.But, regarding the degree of satisfaction with one’s job, people who describe themselves as “not satisfied” or “very unsatisfied” work 1.9 hours less than people who answered “quite satisfied” or “satisfied”.

     The results show that the three groups with the longest working time all belong to the service sector. Considering the fact that the proportion of the service sector among the working population is steadily increasing, health problems that might arise from long working hours in that sector must not be neglected. The Acting Director of the IOSH, Huang Chiu-Kuei, points out: employees with occupations in real estate, travel, housekeeping, catering, family day care, security service, or as elected representatives and administrative/business executives must by all means take care of their health. People with long working hours should not neglect exercise and be aware of the increasing problem of obesity. The ILOSH recently issued the CD “666 Healthy Exercises for Losing Weight”, the CD “How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep”, and the brochure “How to Improve Your Sleep”, in order to help working people lose weight, relax and improve sleep quality. Everyone is welcome to order these resources from the IOSH. The contact person is Hu Yi-Lun, Medical Section, telephone 26607600 ext. 272.