DrStrange
4 of a Kind
Some of the recent political dust ups got me to wondering who works the hardest in the world, measured by the hours worked per worker. (Noting that a nation with higher workforce participation and/or higher population and/or higher productivity might have more work done even if the total hours per worker is less.) There are two very different notions being put forward about American workers - full time workers in America work very long hours, perhaps the most in the world. But when you filter in the hours of part time workers, America is more middle of the road.
The national numbers I found seemed shocking, certainly not what I expected. My numbers come from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, better known as the OECD (mostly 2014 data). They are self reported, the OECD does not intrude into national economic reporting. It would be normal for truly questionable numbers to be flagged (and in today's world it would be rather hard for a nation to pretend to have an economy twice as it really is and not get laughed at.)
The hardest working people in the world? Not on my top twenty guesses - Mexico where an average Mexican worker puts in 2,228 hours a year on the job or about 43 hours per week.
Second place goes to South Korea where the average worker puts in 2,163 hours per year.
Third place - another shocker. Greeks work the longest hours in Europe, clocking in 2,042 hours a year in 2014, which works out to about 39 hours per week.
Rounding out the top five are Chile and Russia where workers put in an average of 1,990 and 1,985 hours a year per worker respectively, or about 38 hours per week.
Where is the USA? 1,789 hours per year makes our workers number 16 world wide among nations that self report to the OECD.
World wide average of OECD countries is about 1,770 hours per worker. So workers in the USA work 1% more than an average worker world wide.
Who works the least? Workers in Germany work the shortest hours of all OECD countries. The average worker there puts in just 1,371 hours a year or 26 hours per week.
Nothing like what I expected. Greeks work 50% harder than Germans. Mexicans work 25% harder than Americans. Could be JEB was right, Americans might need to work harder just to hold steady.
DrStrange
The national numbers I found seemed shocking, certainly not what I expected. My numbers come from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, better known as the OECD (mostly 2014 data). They are self reported, the OECD does not intrude into national economic reporting. It would be normal for truly questionable numbers to be flagged (and in today's world it would be rather hard for a nation to pretend to have an economy twice as it really is and not get laughed at.)
The hardest working people in the world? Not on my top twenty guesses - Mexico where an average Mexican worker puts in 2,228 hours a year on the job or about 43 hours per week.
Second place goes to South Korea where the average worker puts in 2,163 hours per year.
Third place - another shocker. Greeks work the longest hours in Europe, clocking in 2,042 hours a year in 2014, which works out to about 39 hours per week.
Rounding out the top five are Chile and Russia where workers put in an average of 1,990 and 1,985 hours a year per worker respectively, or about 38 hours per week.
Where is the USA? 1,789 hours per year makes our workers number 16 world wide among nations that self report to the OECD.
World wide average of OECD countries is about 1,770 hours per worker. So workers in the USA work 1% more than an average worker world wide.
Who works the least? Workers in Germany work the shortest hours of all OECD countries. The average worker there puts in just 1,371 hours a year or 26 hours per week.
Nothing like what I expected. Greeks work 50% harder than Germans. Mexicans work 25% harder than Americans. Could be JEB was right, Americans might need to work harder just to hold steady.
DrStrange