According to an Associated Press report, a United Nations study found that Americans worked more hours in 2000 than any other industrial nation. The report, compiled by the International Labor Organization, found that the average American worked 1,978 hours last year — almost three months more than German workers did.
The AP notes that many European workers receive 6 week vacations, but they forget to add the other side of the equation. Americans might work more hours, but Europe pays for those vacations in the form of very high unemployment.
In Germany, for example, the June 2001 unemployment rate was 8.9 percent — almost double the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.5 percent for the same period. The same laws that require European businesses to give up to six weeks of vacation time to their workers also part of an overall regulatory burden that severely inhibits job creation.
German’s far lighter demands sound like great work — if you can get it.
Source:
U.N study: Americans work more. Associated Press, September 1, 2001.