The good news: number of working hours decreased from 2000 to 2017 for pretty much all the countries in this report. A sign of overall development in my opinion.
Average annual hours worked per country
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#32There's only 38 countries on here, a large majority of which would be considered "Western." The only thing this is really useful for having first worlders lust after other first world countries with single digit percent differences in work hours Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average.
Most countries have at least 4 weeks holiday, so that would be 1920 hours. In the UK the standard week varies between 35 and 40 hours (9-5 with hour lunch, 9-5.30 with hour lunch, 9-5:30 with half hour lunch), and the 4 weeks is in addition to the 9ish bank holidays, so that's about 1700 hours, and sure enough 1681 is the magic number. Greece surprised me. They have 20% unemployment, meaning that if they spread the w…
Maybe a lot of agriculture and small business?
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#33There's only 38 countries on here, a large majority of which would be considered "Western." The only thing this is really useful for having first worlders lust after other first world countries with single digit percent differences in work hours Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average.
> Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average.
Standard in the US, not standard everywhere.
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live and work in Germany but I am not German. I believe the work culture here is: if you are having to work outside core hours, you are ineffective and should have managed your workload better. Consequently I believe there is greater focus on continuously doing the most important task during work rather than occupying oneself with 'busy work' that is prevalent in many other work cultures.
I live in Germany as well (I'm Swiss), and people usually get free time in exchange for overtime and not money around here. I think that explains it better, because overtime is pretty prevalent - at least in some jobs. Others not so much. You usually don't have to work more than your usual 8 hours/day in a super market. As a software engineer however...
> people usually get free time in exchange for overtime and not money
Either of those are unique among a professional largely salaried.
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#35The good news: number of working hours decreased from 2000 to 2017 for pretty much all the countries in this report. A sign of overall development in my opinion.
Or job market regression. Combined with wage stagnation in the US over the past few decades, a decrease in working hours (depending on where the hours are dropping) would have to map to an increase in poverty and/or homelessness unless paired with a decrease in cost of living (which isn't happening here)
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#36Unsurprisingly, USA near the top with 1780 hrs worked annually by the average worker, contrast that with the most hours mexico (2257 hrs) and with the least hours Germany (1356) or the Scandanavians like Denmark and Norway (both around ~1400 hours). This is a poor look for the corporate-centric politics of the USA, which has extremely rich citizens and corporations yet which forces very long hours onto its laborers.…
I'd be curious about the definition of "worked" in Mexico.
In many 3rd world countries, office and residence are the same place.
A shop keeper may keep the door open 12 hours per day, but still enjoy socializing with the neighbors and generally living a stress-free lifestyle.
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#37I guess "he works like a mexican is no longer racist", just factual
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#38Doesn't annual hours worked suffer from "measure as a target" issue among other things?
There frequently are incentives to misreport it based on company culture or perception among coworkers. Nor does it actually correspond to 'productive' hours.
I can tell you for a fact that while my coworker is physically present for about 40 hours a week, they realistically perform job duties for maybe about 15-20 hours out of that, and that's being generous.
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#39There's only 38 countries on here, a large majority of which would be considered "Western." The only thing this is really useful for having first worlders lust after other first world countries with single digit percent differences in work hours Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average.
> Also don't forget a standard 40 work week over a year is 2080 hours, significantly higher than the average. Standard in the US, not standard everywhere.
Don't forget there are typically 8-10 paid holidays (New Year, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) for full-time salaried employees in the US, plus whatever paid vacation they choose to use. Usually 2000 hours is a good number for 40 hrs/wk full time employment (without PTO).
Re: Average annual hours worked per country
#40Keep in mind that this is showing the "reported" hours, which can be misleading. For example it shows that people in US works more than Japan but I know for a fact that people in Japan works A LOT more. However, since it is a cultural thing and they expect you to work long hours, no one reports overtime. I even heard that you can get fired if you report it.
Exactly what I wanted to say. I know it shows Korea as the 3rd most, but I feel like they should be higher on the list. Most don't report overtime and just do their work because it has become the convention and it wouldn't look good to their bosses.
Still, if this is total hours divided by workforce - at least in Japan I believe women are still more often stay at home, than in eg Norway? Not sure about South Korea.