Survey Finds Average Monthly Overtime of 22.2 Hours in Japan

A survey of 15,000 businesspeople, conducted by Persol Career, a human resource service provider, showed that in 2022, respondents worked 22.2 hours overtime on average per month. This was a 1.4-hour increase from the 20.8 hours in the 2021 survey. In 2022, there was a move toward easing COVID-19 related restrictions placed on working environments, such as reductions in remote working, which led to the increased overtime.

By occupation, secretaries and receptionists worked the lowest average overtime at 10 hours, while those in beauty-related occupations had similarly low overtime with 10.4 hours and sales administrative assistants 11 hours. Overall, the occupations with the lowest average overtime were assistant type positions.

Occupations with the highest amount of overtime were publishing and online producer, and business consultant, both with 37.1 hours.

Notably, the average overtime for business consultants increased by 10.1 hours compared to the results of the 2021 survey. Demand is said to be growing for people in those occupations as the pandemic has led to more companies digitizing their business operations. There was also a year-on-year increase of 12 hours in overtime for goods and service developers, pushing that occupation from outside the ranking into fourth place for longest overtime hours. This increase appears to be due to demand for development projects that can provide high added value and competitive differentiation for new styles of living.

For creative jobs, people in their thirties worked an average of 32.5 hours overtime and those in their twenties worked 30.9 hours. For architecture and civil engineer-related jobs, people in their thirties worked 31.1 hours. People working in the creative sector (including game creators, and publishing and online producers) saw an overall increase in overtime hours due to the progressive shift toward an online society in tandem with the pandemic.

The survey was held online in August 2022 and based on information from online research company databases.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)