The average workday within manufacturing is eight hours and 59 minutes, compared to the nationwide average of eight hours and 16 minutes. The study also revealed 67.8% of professionals in the industry work overtime, but only 34.9% are paid for the additional work.
Around six in 10 of those polled (60.4%) claimed to work between five and 10 extra hours per week on top of their contracted time. More than two thirds (69.9%) of manufacturing workers start work between six and eight in the morning.
A further 15.9% are already in work by nine. Around half (50.1%) still work on average until four and six in the afternoon. One in 10 admit that they take no lunchbreak despite the long hours.
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, said that with the industry struggling with skills shortages, it’s “not surprising 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,” he said.
“The manufacturing 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.”
