Work Hours Per Week Around the World
August 13, 2009
Traditional working hours vary greatly around the globe, based on both economic and cultural differences. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development just released their study on average annual hours worked per worker in 2008, showing us which countries have their nose to the grindstone and which ones are more often found smelling the roses.
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Apparently I work twice the norm in the USA.
Comment by Ruggy — August 13, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
Ummm… Where’s China and India?
Comment by Nemo -- N'rn Wisconsin — August 13, 2009 @ 6:45 pm
Thanks Ruggy! Due to your efforts, I only have do half the work I used to. Signed, your co-worker.
Comment by Scrum — August 13, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
American says wtf? no way. I work twice that.
Comment by k — August 13, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
I have to say everyone in Canada where I work (unless part time) are 40+ hours a week.
Comment by Lenny — August 13, 2009 @ 7:34 pm
Agree with Nemo, China’s the one I opened this for.
Comment by Jimmy James — August 13, 2009 @ 7:40 pm
@Nemo This graph is for OECD countries not the other growing economy countries like China and India where it averages about 50-60 hours a week.
Comment by Perzen — August 13, 2009 @ 7:45 pm
they probably don’t want to put up china and india’s numbers because it’ll just be ridiculous
Comment by not important — August 13, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
@Nemo This graph is for OECD countries not the other growing economy countries like China and India where it averages about 50-60 hours a week.
I completely agree to Perzen, and BTW, if somebody wants to do something like this then world does not ends and starts at OECD…
Comment by Anonymous — August 13, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
I agree.. USA works more than that..
Comment by Heather — August 13, 2009 @ 8:51 pm
This material is not accurate. This article starts with the phrase “traditional” working hours, but then goes on to present averages. These averages are inclusive of people who cannot find more work than they’re getting, so it’s just silly. If you wanted to know what it’s like to work in Mexico when you can find work, it’s like monday through saturday, 10 hours a day, lucky if you get a lunch break.
Comment by Joe Kraska — August 13, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
yeah this seems pretty off. i wonder what their methods are for gathering information like this. i know almost definitely that japan and the US work more than that.
Comment by robert — August 13, 2009 @ 10:13 pm
The figures are averages. Thus, part time and casual workers, plus annual leave and sick leave will avccount for the <40 hours per week in most countries.
Comment by Statistics — August 13, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
Sorry, it’s not correct. In Spain all workers work at least 1750 hours per year.
Comment by spanish — August 13, 2009 @ 11:37 pm
Hmm…guess I am the one crazy working 70-80 hours per week. Or the rest of the world is lazy…
Comment by Teiosanu George — August 13, 2009 @ 11:39 pm
UK 32 hours? There must be something wrong. I think they get this from the managers who don’t want to get in trouble with the B.S. EU law. I work min - 40 hours a week! And god knows how much more hours upward.
Comment by Joel — August 14, 2009 @ 3:16 am
Funny, it looks like the major economic powers in the eurozone are also the ones where average worktime is the lowest (Germany + France). That proves productivism is not a linear function of worktime…
Comment by Guillaume — August 14, 2009 @ 6:00 am
I think this is PER JOB — many Americans have 2 or more jobs.
Comment by Nixon — August 14, 2009 @ 7:10 am
I would have thought it would be higher for Americans, but part time workers would skew the numbers. I’d be interested to see the averages among full time/salaried employees only.
Comment by Mr. Dave — August 14, 2009 @ 7:31 am
china and india are too busy working to give any data for this
Comment by ryan — August 14, 2009 @ 11:58 am
These are averages, which includes everyone who doesn’t work at all. Thus, your 70 hrs/wk + someone else’s 0 hrs/wk = 35 hrs/wk average between you both.
Comment by Gwendolyn Schmidt — August 14, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
Ahah ! Completely wrong. Working in France is 35h per week minimum.
Comment by Ah — August 15, 2009 @ 10:58 am
For the U.S. they must be factoring in the unemployed to come up with the thought that we on average work only 35 hours a week. I do not recall a 2 hour lunch in the last 20 years, I don’t smoke and I can’t recall just siting around for the phone to ring. Thank you bias analyists putting this report together; no doubt it was funded by your employers earmarked Republican efforts to tell us how good we have it.
Thanks.
Comment by sr — August 15, 2009 @ 11:01 am
Guys, relax! Those numbers calculated based on per-year working hours - means with vacations, holidays, etc. If you work 8 hours daily 5 days per week and have 3 month long vacation (+ xmas holidays + something like 2 weeks long “labour day” vacation in May in Russia + 10 national holidays per year) - your average weekly hours will be 30 or less - like in Germany and Norway.
Comment by PK — August 16, 2009 @ 3:05 am
Don’t trust a statistic you haven’t forged. The map quite likely shows the average of full-time and part-time jobs combined, otherwise the 27 hours for Germany (where I am from) wouldn’t make any sense even if you add vacations, holidays, illnesses etc. to the equation. People work an average 38 to 42 hours on their full-time jobs in Germany, while on the other hand there is a large amount of low-income part-time jobs to keep the unemplyoment rate as low as possible.
Comment by Mike — August 17, 2009 @ 7:05 am
Everyone I know in Germany with a regular job works 38 hours or more. There have to be part time workers in those numbers. I mean, 27 hours a week is not full time, that’s for sure. Even in Germany ;-).
Comment by Ulf — August 17, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
It would be almost impossible to survive in the U.S. working less than 40 Hours/Week. I personally work at least 54 every week
Comment by Mariohn — August 22, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
even still the study could have been done a lot better and factored the part- timers into one category, the full- timers into another and leave the lazy bums without a job off the charts period
Comment by the phoenix — August 22, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
Im suprised that poland had 38 hours i thourght it was around 30
Comment by Krys — September 16, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
This is not accurate for Spain either! There are weeks I have to work over 70 hours. The minimum for me is +40 and that’s pretty much the same for everybody I know.
Comment by Carmen — October 21, 2009 @ 11:37 pm
I agree with Carmen: Spain is +40, extra hours are not counted and not paid.
Comment by Vanessa — October 27, 2009 @ 4:53 am
You cannot survive in the U.S. working less than 40 Hours per week.
Comment by Connie — October 28, 2009 @ 10:29 am
I am surprised by some people here who think the world revolves around them. The numbers here are AVERAGES. If the number of hours YOU work is higher, it does not mean that the AVERAGE is wrong. All it means that in YOUR CASE the number is higher than the average. That’s why we look at this graph in the first place instead of making a conclusion ABOUT A WHOLE COUNTRY based on what some random guy from that country says about himself and maybe a few other people he knows.
Anyway, what’s interesting is not an absolute number of hours for one country (which is most probably is not 100% correct), but a comparison to other countries.
I agree with Guillaume. A higher number of working hours does not lead to a better productivity. Slave labor is not productive.
Comment by Paul — November 5, 2009 @ 10:28 am