Key Takeaways

• Industrial sectors remain overwhelmingly full-time. Manufacturing employs about 5.83 million full-time workers compared with 770,000 part-time workers, meaning only 12% of workers are part-time. Construction (86%) and utilities (85%) show similar patterns.
• Part-time work is far more common in service industries. In wholesale and retail trade, about 36% of workers are part-time, while administrative services (35%) and public administration (37%) show similarly mixed employment structures.
• Human health and social work is Germany’s largest employment sector. It employs roughly 2.76 million full-time and 2.77 million part-time workers, making it almost evenly split.
• Industrial sectors remain overwhelmingly full-time. Manufacturing, construction, and utilities rely heavily on full-time workers because production processes, technical teams, and site-based work are harder to divide into shorter schedules.
• Service sectors rely more on part-time work. Retail, healthcare, education, and public services employ larger shares of part-time workers due to shift schedules, institutional flexibility, and customer demand patterns.

Full-Time vs Part-Time Employment* in Germany by Industry

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

Industrial Germany Works Mostly Full-Time

Germany’s core industrial sectors remain strongly full-time dominated.

Manufacturing, the country’s largest industrial employer, employs roughly 5.8 million full-time workers, compared with about 770,000 part-time employees. That means only 12% of workers in manufacturing are part-time.

A similar pattern appears across the full-time workforce of production sectors:

• Construction: 1.69 million (86%) 
• Waste and water services: 254,000 (89%)
• Utilities: 251,000 (85%)

These industries depend on continuous production processes, technical teams, and site-based work, where dividing roles into shorter schedules is often less practical.

As a result, the traditional structure of full-time employment remains dominant across Germany’s industrial economy.

Part-Time Work Is More Common in Service Sector

Outside of industrial sectors, part-time work is more common.

In wholesale and retail trade, 2.91 million people work full-time, while 1.61 million work part-time. This means 36% of workers in the sector are part-time.

A similar structure appears in administrative and support services. which employs 1.42 million full-time workers, and 772,000 part-time workers or 35% part-time employment. In public administration, around 1.34 million employees work full-time compared with about 785,000 part-time workers. This means that 37% of the workforce works reduced hours.

In human health and social work, Germany’s largest employment sectors, the numbers are almost perfectly balanced. The sector employs roughly 2.76 million full-time workers and 2.77 million part-time workers, making it one of the most evenly split sectors in the labour market.

In some service sectors, part-time work is even more prevalent.

In education, part-time workers actually outnumber full-time staff. The sector employs around 822,000 part-time workers compared with 656,000 full-time employees. This means 56% of its workforce is made up of part-timers.

Several practical factors contribute to this pattern.

• Shift-based work is common in sectors such as healthcare, where services must operate around the clock.
• In education (56% part-time) and public administration (37%), reduced hours are more common due to work-life balance policies and regulations such as Germany’s Teilzeit- und Befristungsgesetz.
• Sectors like retail and hospitality often organise work around busy and quiet periods during the day and week, leading to shorter shifts.

Germany’s labour market is often described as highly flexible. In practice, however, this flexibility is concentrated in certain parts of the service economy. Industrial sectors remain largely organised around full-time work, while many service sectors rely much more heavily on part-time employment.