Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

According to official figures, 21.3% of workers in the European Union aged 15 to 64 typically worked weekends in 2025. These figures were released by Eurostat, the European statistical office in Brussels, coinciding with Labor Day celebrations in early May.

Working on weekends was most common among those employed in the services and sales sector (47.6%), skilled workers in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (47.2%), and those in unskilled occupations (25.7%).

Only 18.5% of employees typically worked weekends. In contrast, the percentage was higher among the self-employed: 45.8% of employers, 35.9% of self-employed individuals, and 45.1% of working family members. In the European Union, Greece had the highest percentage of employees working weekends (31.5%), followed by Cyprus (31.3%) and Malta (29.2%). Conversely, the lowest percentages were recorded in Lithuania (3.0%), Poland (4.2%), and Hungary (6.2%).

For self-employed individuals with employees working weekends, Greece had the highest percentage (75.0%), followed by Belgium (65.9%) and France (61.0%), while Hungary (9.9%), Slovakia (15.0%), and Poland (15.1%) had the lowest.