One in every five employees was engaged in shift employment and most of these were male, according to a statistic issues by the NSO for the year 2015.

Figures show that more than half of the shift workers were engaged in the public administration, defence, education, human health and social work activities. These account to more than 35% of the shift working population. Some 30% were employed in the wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities.

Almost 30 per cent of shift workers were involved in the service and sales, with 25.9 per cent of all male shift workers and 36.8 per cent of their female counterparts.

The majority of shift workers were permanently employed on a full-time basis.

The average hours worked by shift workers amount to 42.5 hours per week for full-timers and 24.4 hours per week for part-timers. Shift workers were more willing to work additional hours with 14% of the total, when compared to non-shift workers which accounts to some 10%.

Males were more likely to work atypical hours (work carried out during weekends or weekdays between 8pm and 5am) than females. Malta also recorded the second highest share of persons working at night in the EU (mainly due to the country’s large share of employment in the health sector).