Key Findings

• In 2019, the employer was most likely to decide when employed persons in Ireland started and finished work (64.8%); this is slightly higher than the corresponding figure for the EU27 (60.8%)
• Employers here were more likely to decide when a woman started, and finished work compared to setting a man’s work schedule (70.6% against 59.9% respectively) and while the same trend was observed in the EU27, the gender gap (63.9% against 58.1%) was much smaller than for Ireland
• Just under one-in-five (17.3%) employed persons in Ireland were able to fully decide the start and end of their working day, which is slightly lower than the corresponding figure for the EU27 (18.1%)
• The likelihood of the employed person being able to fully decide the start and end of their working day in Ireland increased with age, was highest for those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing economic sector and lowest for those working in the Human Health and Social Work Activities economic sector
• In Ireland, just over one-in-three employed persons (36.0%) reported that it would be Very Easy for them to take one or two hours off for personal or family reasons with one working day's notice while the corresponding rate for the EU27 was 33.7%
• Taking one or two hours off at short notice was more likely to be Very Easy for males than females (40.8% versus 30.5%) and was most likely for those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector (73.9%) and for those working as Managers, directors and senior officials (59.1%)
• Taking leave for one or two days at short notice was more likely to be Very Easy for males than females, (21.0% versus 17.5%) and the ease of taking leave increased with age
• Employed males were more likely than employed females to indicate that they needed to adapt their working time at least once per week due to work demands (19.7% and 12.6% respectively)
• While 13.4% of employed persons in Ireland indicated that they had been contacted for work purposes several times during their leisure time in the previous two months and were expected to act before the next working day; the corresponding figure for the EU27 was 10.1%
• Employed males were more likely than employed females to have reported being contacted during leisure time in the last two months and expected to act before the next working day at 16.7% and 9.5% respectively

Introduction

Each year, as part of the governing regulation, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in member states across Europe contains additional questions on specific themes relating to the Labour Market. This bulletin is the first edition of a new set of themed bulletin style outputs from the LFS and is based on analysis of questions relating to the theme Work organisation and working time arrangements. In Ireland, those variables were collected as part of the LFS in Quarter 2 (Q2) 2019 while these variables were also collected across all other EU member states in 2019.

The release of this bulletin today has been timed to coincide with the release of the EU27 results by Eurostat for the Flexibility at work subsection of the Work organisation and working time arrangements questions from 2019. The EU results were released by Eurostat at 10am Irish time today (29 September 2020). The EU27 figures included in the text of this release for comparison against the corresponding results for Ireland are taken from the data used in the Eurostat report linked above. 

Two further releases of other subsections of the Work organisation and working time arrangements questions from 2019 have been scheduled by Eurostat. The topics and planned release dates are as follows:

06 October 2020: Job autonomy and pressure at work in 2019

15 October 2020: Main place of work and commuting time in 2019

The Labour Market and Earnings area in the Central Statistics Office (CSO) will also be releasing comparable Irish data on the same dates as further versions of these LFS themed bulletins.

Flexibility to decide on working time

In 2019, the employer was most likely to decide when employed persons in Ireland started and finished work (64.8%); this is slightly higher than the corresponding figure for the EU27 (60.8%) while the highest and lowest values across the EU27 member states were observed in Bulgaria (79.8%) and Finland (29.9%) respectively.

In Ireland, the employer was more likely to decide when a woman started and finished work, compared to setting a man’s work schedule (70.6% against 59.9% respectively) and while the same trend was observed in the EU27, the gender gap (63.9% against 58.1%) was much smaller than for Ireland.

Just under one-in-five (17.3%) employed persons in Ireland were able to fully decide the start and end of their working day which is slightly lower than the corresponding figure for the EU27 (18.1%).

The likelihood of the employed person being able to fully decide the start and end of their working day in Ireland increased with age: 8.6% for those aged 15-34 years, 17.4% for those aged 35-49 years and 26.9% for those aged 50 -74 years.

Those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing economic sector were most likely to be able to fully decide the start and end of their working time (60.3%) while those working in the Human Health and Social Work Activities economic sector were the least likely (7.9%).

Those who worked as Managers, directors and senior officials were most likely to be able to fully decide the start and end of their working time (42.3%) while those working in Elementary occupations, such as labourers or domestic helpers and cleaners, were the least likely (6.1%).

Only 8.9% of Employees were able to fully decide the start and end of their working day compared to 69.4% of those who were Self-Employed with Employees.

Level of difficulty to take one or two hours off with one day's notice

In Ireland, just over one-in-three employed persons (36.0%) reported that it would be Very Easy for them to take one or two hours off for personal or family reasons with one working day’s notice. The corresponding rate for the EU27 was 33.7% while the highest and lowest values across the EU27 member states were observed in Sweden (52.2%) and Bulgaria (13.7%) respectively.

Taking one or two hours off at short notice was more likely to be Very Easy for males than females in Ireland (40.8% versus 30.5%) and, while the same trend was observed in the EU27, the gender gap (36.9% against 30.0%) was smaller than for Ireland.

The likelihood of an employed person reporting it being Very Easy to take one or two hours off for personal or family reasons with one working day’s notice increased with age from 26.5% for those aged 15-34 years to 37.2% for those aged 35-49 years and 44.8% for those aged 50-74 years.

Those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing economic sector were most likely to report it being Very Easy for them to take one or two hours off for personal or family reasons with one working day’s notice (73.9%) while those working in the Human Health and Social Work Activities economic sector were the least likely (21.0%).

Those who worked as Managers, directors and senior officials were most likely to find it Very Easy to take one or two hours off (59.1%) while those working in Caring, leisure and other service occupations were the least likely (24.8%).

Just under three-in-ten of Employees (29.0%) reported it being Very Easy for them to take one or two hours off for personal or family reasons with one working day’s notice compared to 77.1% of those who were Self-Employed with Employees.

Level of difficulty to take leave for one or two days with three working days’ notice

In Ireland, just under one-in-five employed persons (19.4%) reported that it would be Very Easy for them to take leave for one or two days with three days’ notice. This is very similar to the corresponding rate for the EU27 (19.0%) while the lowest and highest values across the EU27 member states were observed in Bulgaria (8.1%) and Slovenia (48.1%) respectively.

Taking leave for one or two days at short notice was more likely to be Very Easy for males than females, (21.0% versus 17.5%).

The likelihood of an employed person reporting it being Very Easy to take leave for one or two days with three working days’ notice increased with age from 15.2% for those aged 15-34 years to 19.4% for those aged 35-49 years and 24.0% for those aged 50-74 years.

Those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing economic sector were most likely to report it being Very Easy for them to take leave for one or two days with three working days’ notice (28.0%) while those working in the Human Health and Social Work Activities economic sector were the least likely (11.7%).

Those who worked as Managers, directors and senior officials were most likely to find it Very Easy to take leave for one or two days at short notice (26.7%) while those working in Sales and customer service occupations were the least likely (15.0%).

Approximately one-in-six Employees (16.5%) reported it being Very Easy for them to take leave for one or two days with three working days’ notice compared to 36.7% of those who were Self-Employed without Employees.

Frequency of adapting working time due to unforeseen demands at work

In 2019, approximately one-in-six (16.4%) employed persons in Ireland indicated that they needed to adapt their working time due to unforeseen demands at work at least once per week. This compares to 20.9% for the EU27 while the lowest and highest values across the EU27 member states were observed in Bulgaria (8.1%) and Luxemburg (36.7%) respectively.

Employed males were more likely than employed females to indicate that they needed to adapt their working time at least once per week due to work demands (19.7% and 12.6% respectively).

Those working in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing economic sector were most likely to report that they needed to change their working time due to work commitments at least once per week (27.4%) while those working in the Education economic sector were the least likely (7.9%).

Frequency of work-related contacts during leisure time in the previous two months

In 2019, just over half of all employed persons in Ireland (52.9%) indicated that they had not been contacted for work purposes during their leisure time in the previous two months. This compares with 59.4% of employed persons across the EU27 while the highest and lowest values across the EU27 member states were observed in Lithuania (79.6%) and Finland (30.2%) respectively.

At the opposite end of this question, 13.4% of employed persons in Ireland indicated that they had been contacted for work purposes several times during their leisure time in the previous two months and were expected to act before the next working day. This compares with an aggregate across the EU27 of 10.1% while the highest and lowest results across the EU27 member states were 22.7% (Finland) and 3.1% (Lithuania and Romania) respectively.

In Ireland, employed males were more likely than employed females to have reported being contacted several times during their leisure time in the previous two months and expected to act before the next working day (16.7% and 9.5% respectively). While the same trend was observed in the EU27, the gender gap (11.9% against 8.0%) was much smaller than for Ireland.

The likelihood of an employed person reporting being contacted on several occasions during their leisure time in the previous two months and be expected to act before the next work day increased with age from 8.1% for those aged 15-34 years to 15.6% for those aged 35-49 years and 16.2% for those aged 50-74 years.

Those working in the Professional, Scientific and Real Estate Activities economic sector were most likely to report having been contacted on several occasions for work purposes during their leisure time in the past two months and expected to act before the next working day (18.2%) while those working in the Human Health and Social Work Activities economic sector were the least likely (10.0%).

Those who worked as Managers, directors and senior officials were most likely to report having been contacted on several occasions for work purposes during their leisure time in the past two months and expected to act before the next working day (36.3%) while those working in Elementary occupations were the least likely (6.1%).

Only one-in-ten Employees (10.5%) reported being contacted during leisure time in the last two months and were expected to act before the next working day compared to 43.4% of Self-Employed with Employees.

Background Notes

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a quarterly survey which is the official source of employment and unemployment in Ireland and is conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The LFS is governed by a European Regulation which also includes the addition of a set of questions on a specific topic to supplement the core LFS each year. The purpose of these additional questions (known as ad hoc module) is to provide users with statistics on a specific topic concerning the labour market. Like the core LFS variables, the additional themed variables are captured by all EU member states and collated by Eurostat, the European statistical agency, which allows for the publication of EU estimates.

Information relating to the different sets of themed questions that are collected across Europe as part of the LFS each year are available on the Eurostat website. In 2019, the additional questions were based on the theme Work organisation and working time arrangements. Eurostat has published European results for 2019 today from the subsection Flexibility at Work of the theme Work organisation and working time arrangements in the form of an article and as a set of tables. The EU27 figures included in the text of this bulletin for comparison against the corresponding results for Ireland are taken from the data available in the tables on the Eurostat website which are linked above.

Two further releases of other subsections of the Work organisation and working time arrangements questions from 2019 have been scheduled by Eurostat. The topics and planned release dates are as follows:

06 October 2020: Job autonomy and pressure at work in 2019

15 October 2020: Main place of work and commuting time in 2019

The Labour Market and Earnings area in the Central Statistics Office (CSO) will also be releasing comparable Irish data on the same dates as further versions of these LFS themed bulletins. 

Thanks: The CSO would like to thank most sincerely all those who have participated and continue to participate in our household surveys including the Labour Force Survey (LFS) from which the results in this bulletin are based. Without your participation it would not be possible for us to collect and disseminate results such as these. Results from CSO household surveys provide details on the current economic and social situation in Ireland and are used to inform and guide Government policy decisions.

Please Note: The Labour Market and Earnings Division of the CSO is compiling a list of users who have registered to be kept informed in relation to relevant announcements from the CSO relating to Labour Market and Earnings, including publication plans. If you haven't already done so you can register your email address by sending an email to labour@cso.ie asking to be included on this user list.