Almost one out of every five employees was engaged in shift employment last year, the National Statistics Office said.

In a publication launched today Shift Employment in Malta: 2015 (see pdf link below), it said that more than two shift workers out of every three were male.

More than half of the shift workers were engaged in public administration, defence, education, human health and social work activities and the wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities.

Almost 30 per cent of shift workers were involved in the service and sales, with 25.9 per cent of all male shift workers and 36.8 per cent of their female counterparts.

The majority of shift workers were employed on a full-time basis. They worked an average 42.5 hours per week. Part-timers worked an average 24.4 hours per week.

Shift workers were more willing to work additional hours (14.2 per cent) when compared to non-shift workers (10.4 per cent).

Males were more likely than females to work at night.

Malta recorded the second highest share of persons working at night in the EU (mainly due to the country’s large share of employment in the health sector).