The feasibility of working time reductions: labor market segmentation by practical work conditions

Generalized claims regarding the feasibility of working time reductions (WTRs) dominate academic and public discourse. Beyond sporadic acknowledgements of the diversity of work contexts illustrated only by isolated examples, no attempts have been made to segment the workforce by the conditions that influence why and how WTRs can be implemented. This is a critical gap in the literature on sustainable economies because widespread WTRs are likely to be essential. This article describes a representative survey of the Hungarian workforce (N = 1,016) with questions focused on known determinants of the practical feasibility of various WTRs. We identify six statistically distinct clusters. We label them “externally controlled,” “presence-based,” “overworked,” “mobile,” “relaxed,” and “self-exploited.” Work intensity and variability, the level of autonomy, and the definition, measurement, and length of working hours vary significantly across these clusters. Furthermore, we find substantial diversity between them in terms of the deviation of actual hours from official working time and the perceived feasibility of regulation-induced WTRs, while differences in pay can be inferred from characteristic job types. We distinguish and discuss the motivational, political, and practical aspects of feasibility to argue that the feasible types of WTRs differ radically across the clusters. The disaggregated view of the workforce presented here is a step toward more realistic discussions of WTRs and the pathways to them, which could inform expectations about the production side of sustainable economies.