Malta recorded one of the highest rates of long working hours in the European Union (EU) during the second quarter of 2025, with 14.6% of its workforce clocking more than 45 hours per week, according to newly released data from Eurostat.

The figures show that Malta had the third-largest proportion of employees working over 45 hours weekly, surpassed only by Greece (20.9%) and Cyprus (16.6%).

Across the EU, 10.8% of people aged 20 to 64 worked beyond 45 hours per week when combining their main and secondary jobs, underscoring wide variations between Member States.

At the other end of the scale, Bulgaria (2.5%), Latvia (4.1%), Romania (5.9%) and Hungary (7%) reported the smallest shares of long-hour workers.

Several other countries also recorded lower levels than Malta, including Germany (8.7%), Slovakia (9.1%), Lithuania and Estonia (9.3%), Spain (9.7%), the Netherlands (10%), Slovenia (10.1%), Finland (11%), Italy (11.4%), Austria (11.6%), Sweden (12.4%), Belgium (12.4%), France (13.5%), Ireland (14%) and Portugal (14.2%).

Across the EU, the majority of employees (72.3%) worked between 20 and 44 hours per week. This standard working-hour range was most common in Bulgaria (92.8%), Romania (90.6%) and Latvia (86.9%). In Malta, fewer than 80% of employees fell into this category, highlighting a higher tendency toward longer workweeks.

Meanwhile, 16.9% of employed people in the EU worked 19 hours or less per week. Malta had one of the lowest shares of part-time workers, with roughly 8% working under 19 hours.

Part-time employment was most widespread in the Netherlands (26.8%), Denmark (25.5%) and Austria (25.3%), while Romania (3.5%), Bulgaria (4.6%) and Greece (6.1%) had the fewest part-time workers.

Eurostat explained that the statistics reflect the actual number of hours worked in both main and secondary jobs, including paid and unpaid overtime. However, they exclude commuting time, meal breaks and absences due to holidays or illness. The data, which are seasonally adjusted, are drawn from the EU Labour Force Survey, offering an overview of working habits across the Union.

In a related set of Eurostat figures released in May, the average Maltese employee worked 37.5 hours per week on their main job in 2024. Greece recorded the longest average working week (39.8 hours), while the Netherlands reported the shortest (32.1 hours), followed by Denmark, Germany and Austria, each at 33.9 hours.