The Timesizing® Wire
©2001 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire™, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA (617) 623-8080 -  HOMEPAGE

Looong Workweeks


A Boston Globe article of 10/14/2001 presented a chart titled "Working It" (page J2) showing -
  • the average hours/week worked by full-time employees in 29 economies and
  • the percentage employed full-time, presumably the percentage of just the whole workforce rather than the percentage of the entire population.
    The chart makes the U.S. look good by including 19 third-world sweatshop economies and omitting the first-world Dutch and Scandinavian economies. (The way the U.S. comes out with the most working hours annually in the developed (first) world is by short vacation time.)

                       Third-
    World                
    First-World
    So. Korea 55.1 by 45% Philippines 47.1 by 33% Taiwan 53.4 by 58%
    Turkey 54.1 by 49% Russia 46.9 by 53% Hong Kong 52.2 by 56%
    Argentina 53.5 by 41% Poland 45.6 by 45% Japan 46.5 by 46%
    Vietnam 53.3 by 49% Venezuela 44.9 by 41% Iceland 40*
    Colombia 50.8 by 38% Hungary 44.2 by 60% Germany 42.9 by 54%
    Thailand 49.7 by 52% So. Africa 44.2 by 25% Spain 42.5 by 50%
    Mexico 49.7 by 34% Malaysia 43.8 by 49% USA 42.4 by 59%
    Czech Repub. 48.7 by 67% Brazil 43.6 by 40% Canada 42.2 by 51%
    India 48.2 by 37% Saudi Arabia 43.4 by 40% Italy 40.5 by 49%
    Indonesia 47.1 by 38% China 42.4 by 55% France 40.3 by 47%

    Source: Roper Reports Worldwide 2001, Global Consumer Study 2001.
    Iceland figure from Elin Ingvarsdottir of Icelandic Tourist Board via Jeanette Watkins of People for a Shorter Workweek 10/19/2004 email.

    Compare also workweek lengths in -

    EU grapples with how many hours to work, by Neo Hui Min, 9/03/2004 Straits Times, Singapore (see 9/04-06/2004 #1).
    EUROPE'S WORK WEEK
    Spain: 38 hours
    Italy: 37
    United Kingdom: 37
    Finland: 37
    Sweden: 36
    Ireland: 36
    The Netherlands: 36
    Belgium: 35
    France: 35
    Germany: 35
    Denmark: 34

    On the clock, blowout chart by James Bennett based on data from German Institute of Economy Labor & Welfare, and KRT (published with article, "Overworked Americans are urged to find a balance," by Eli Sanders, in 10/24/2003 Boston Globe, A3 {10/24/2003 #2} ).
    American industrial workers spent more hours on the job in 2002 than their counterparts in other industrial nations.
    Nations,  ranked by [Avg fulltime?] weekly hours,  followed by Avg annual hours [different from simply "weekly times 52" because of holidays & vacation] -
    Switzerland, 40.5, 1844
    United States, 40, 1994
    Greece, 40, 1840
    Luxembourg, 40, 1784
    Italy, 40, 1720
    Finland, 40, 1708
    Portugal, 39.3, 1769
    Japan, 39.2, 1803
    Ireland, 39, 1810
    Sweden, 39, 1710
    Spain, 38.4, 1722
    Austria, 38.4, 1720
    Germany (East), 38.3, 1685
    Netherlands, 37.5, 1670
    Norway, 37.5, 1695
    United Kingdom, 37.2, 1693
    Belgium, 37, 1702
    Denmark, 37, 1650
    France, 35.7, 1605
    Germany (West), 35.7, 1557

    For details on how we could cut the workweek while achieving continuous training in the workplace, on a gradual market-oriented basis, see our "social software" manual Timesizing, Not Downsizing, which is available online from *Amazon.com and at Harvard Books and the Harvard Coop (3rd floor) in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., USA.

    Comments, questions, suggestions? E-mail us or phone 617-623-8080 (Boston).

    Top | Homepage