Taiwan ranks 4th globally in number of working hours

Citing the latest international labour statistics published by the Ministry of Labour (MOL), Huang Wei-Chen, an official with MOL’s Department of Labour Standards and Equal Employment, said Taiwan’s average number of working hours appears to be high because the hours worked by part-time workers are included in the calculation.

He added that due to the pandemic, it is likely that more people have been forced to take on part-time gigs, thereby raising the figure, according to Focus Taiwan.

In terms of the highest average number of hours worked in 2020, Singapore ranked number one with an average of 2,288 hours logged by its workers. Columbia had the second-highest number at 2,172 hours (based on 2019 data), Mexico took third place with 2,124 hours, while Taiwan ranked fourth with 2,021 hours.

Other Asian countries with a high number of working hours were South Korea and Japan, which clocked an average of 1,908 hours and 1,598 hours, respectively.

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All 40 of the countries surveyed showed a fall in average hours worked year-on-year. The decrease was mainly caused by the pandemic and the effects of subsequent measures such as lockdowns, said Huang