Engineering workers have second longest workday in the UK

Published:  29 April, 2016

Engineering workers are among the most likely to work overtime and typically work more hours per day than the average UK employee. The news comes from CV-Library, the UK job site, which conducted a survey of over 16,000 UK workers to uncover how much an engineer’s day differs from the average UK worker.

The research revealed that the average workday for an engineering professional is 8 hours and 55 minutes, meaning engineers have the second longest workday in the UK, compared to just 8 hours and 16 minutes nationwide. The findings also revealed what an average working day looks like in the engineering sector:

• 70.5% of engineers work overtime, compared to just 60% nationwide, making the sector among the most likely to work beyond contracted hours

• 51.7% admit to working 5-10+ extra hours each week

• Yet only 44.3% of sector workers receive overtime pay

• 61% of engineering workers start at the UK average time between 7 and 9am (59.6% UK average); and 69.6% finish at the average UK time between 4 and 6pm

• A worrying 16% rarely take a lunch break despite the long workday

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments: “The engineering sector has been grappling with ongoing skills shortages, so it’s not surprising to learn that workers within the industry are putting in extra hours at work. When there’s a dearth of talent within an industry it often forces the skilled and qualified to take on extra work to fill the gap and train workers on the job. The engineering industry is critical to the UK economy as a whole, so it’s important that employers ensure their existing workers are getting the breaks they need – regularly skipping lunch and consistently working overtime can lead to burnout, which would only create more issues for the sector.”

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