In the second quarter of 2019, approximately 22% of employed individuals in the Icelandic labour market fully decided their working hours according to Statistics Iceland´s study on work organisation and working time arrangements which was implemented as a part of the Icelandic Labour Force Survey. At the same time 28.4% reported they decided their working hours with certain restrictions and 49.3% reported that employer or clients mainly decided their working hours.
Higher proportion of males than females fully decided their working hours or 25.7% males compared with 18.2% females. Similar proportion of males and females decided their working hours with certain restrictions or 27.6% males and 29.3% females. For individuals 16-24 years old, employers or clients mainly decided their working hours for 77.9% of employed, compared with 45.3% for 25-54 year olds and 40.3% for 55-74 year olds.
Flexibility of working hours compared with other European countries
Overall, 18% of employed in Europe controlled their working hours entirely in the second quarter of 2019, 21% could decide their working hours with restrictions but for 60.8% employer or clients mainly decided the working hours. Iceland is in the group of states where it’s most common that workers can mainly decide on their working hours (22.3%) but higher proportion can be seen in Turkey (29.6%), Romania and Belgium (22.6%) and Finland (22.5%).
About the data
The study on work organisation and working time arrangements was implemented as a part of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Iceland in the first quarter of 2019 as an ad hoc module. The ad hoc module was intended to estimate work organisation and working time arrangements of employed individuals to estimate how much flexibility employed have in their jobs. The questions administered focused on the factors that are assumed to be the most important ones for wellbeing of individuals in their job and the balance between work and leisure time.
The questions were submitted to all employed individuals, both employees and self-employed. For employed that had more than one job the questions relate to their main job. The questions were submitted over a three month period or from April 1st to June 30th. The sample consisted of 4,978 individuals 16-74 years old, domiciled in Iceland. When those who were domiciled abroad or deceased had been excluded the net sample consisted of 4,876 individuals. Usable answers were obtained from 2,981 individuals which corresponds to 61,1% response rate.