You know what they say about all work and no play ...
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/business/37360_work01.shtml
We aren't whining, we do work too much
U.S. tops the world in work hours, U.N. reports
Saturday, September 1, 2001
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Remember when they called Boeing "The Lazy B?"
You don't hear that much anymore.
Now it's "work harder; we have to be competitive with the world."
Even in dot-coms, a layoff notice for many seemed like just an opportunity to take some much-deserved time off from 60-hour or seven-day workweeks.
The tech collapse may have changed that for many this Labor Day. But even in this much-touted economic slowdown, Americans are more likely in a position to complain about working too hard than not at all.
And it's not a hollow whine. A new United Nations report says so. Americans really are working more.
U.S. workers have increased their substantial lead over Japan and all other industrial nations in the number of hours worked each year, according to a report issued yesterday by the International Labor Organization. It found that Americans added nearly a full week to their work year during the 1990s. They worked 1,979 hours on average last year -- that's 49 1/2 weeks.
That's 137 more hours or 3 1/2 weeks more per year than Japanese workers, 260 hours (about 6 1/2 weeks) more per year than British workers and 499 hours (12 1/2 weeks) more per year than German workers, the report said.
And then there's the French. They just passed a law trimming the hours in the workweek. But, we'll talk about them in a minute.
The Japanese, long at the top of the heap for the number of hours worked, have for some time been America's biggest competition in this contest for who works hardest. In the mid-1990s the United States surpassed Japan and since then pulled even further ahead.
"It's unique to Americans that they continue to increase their working hours, while hours are declining in other industrialized nations," said Lawrence Jeff Johnson, the economist who oversaw the labor organization's report. "It has a lot to do with the American psyche, with American culture. American workers are eager to make the best impression, to put in the most hours."
Many economists say the numbers demonstrate that the U.S. economic boom of the 1990s provided plenty of work for tens of millions of Americans.
In contrast, the economies of Europe and Japan grew far more slowly, if at all, causing many companies to cut back on the length of the workweek.
Many economists say the number of hours Americans work each year may begin to level off now that many automakers and other manufacturers have reduced the amount of overtime assigned in light of the economic slowdown.
Among the reasons for the large differences between the United States and other countries are that Europeans typically take four to six weeks of vacation each year, while Americans take two to three weeks.
Then, there's France. While American employers kept adding overtime during the 1990s, in France the government reduced the official workweek to 35 hours with the aim of pressuring companies to hire more workers.
But there may be another benefit. French workers are actually more productive per hour than Americans, the report said.
The International Labor Organization ranked the United States No. 1 in the world in productivity per worker.
The study said that last year productivity per American worker in constant 1990 dollars was $54,870, about $1,500 more than Belgium, the No. 2 nation. The report found that productivity per worker in the United States was $10,000 higher than in Canada last year and $14,000 higher than in Japan.
But partly because of the comparatively high number of hours Americans work, the report found that France and Belgium edged out the United States in productivity per hour. In France, which ranked first, workers produced $33.71 of value added per hour on average, compared with $32.98 in Belgium and $32.84 in the United States.
So, perhaps in the interest of higher productivity, we're taking a holiday.
Happy Labor Day.
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P-I staff contributed to this report from The New York Times.
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