In October 2024, the average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in the United States was at 34.3 hours. This includes part-time workers. The data have been seasonally adjusted. Employed persons consist of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls. U.S. working week As in most industrialized countries, the standard work week in the United States begins on Monday and ends on Friday. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average workweek for all employees (including part-time) working in private industries in the United States amounted to about 34.5 hours in 2022. Over the course of one month, the U.S. workforce works about 3.9 billion hours in total.The average work week can differ heavily from industry to industry. An employee in the mining and logging industry worked about 45.5 hours a week in April 2023, while employees in private education and health services worked for an average of 33.4 hours per week.

The statistic provides information on the average hours worked by full-time and part-time employees in the United States from 2001 to 2014. In 2014, full-time employees worked about 46.7 hours per week on average, and part-time employees about 26 hours.

In the United States, the average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was at 34.3 hours in October 2024. The data have been seasonally adjusted. Employed persons consist of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the average weekly number of hours worked by full-time workers in the United Kingdom was 36.5 hours. During this period, there is a dramatic drop observable in 2020, when the average number of working hours fell sharply due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The average number of weekly working hours in the United States has remained relatively steady over the last years. The highest value for the recorded period was in 2021, when U.S. workers worked an average of 34.7 hours a week. The lowest value was in 2009, following the financial crisis when workers worked 33.8 hours on average.

The statistic provides information on the average hours worked by full-time employees in the United States, based on pay structure. In 2014, about 25 percent of salary workers worked 50 to 59 hours per week

This statistic shows the annual average of the length of a working week in the United States, for all employees from 2007 to 2023. Employed persons consist of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls. The average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was at 34.4 hours in 2023.

The average number of weekly hours worked by full-time workers in the European Union was 40.3 hours a week as of the second quarter of 2024, one of the lowest number of average hours worked during this provided time period. While men worked more hours in full-time roles in the EU, this was reversed for part-time roles, where women worked more hours per week.

The average number of weekly hours worked by full-time workers in Northern Ireland was 36.5 in the third quarter of 2024, unchanged from the previous quarter.

The ordinary weekly working hours in Sweden are stated to equal 40 hours. However, the actual average reported weekly working hours was around 30 hours per week during the period from 2012 to 2022. In 2022, an actual working week amounted to 30 hours on average for both part-time and full-time employees.

Highest number of weekly working hours among self-employed

The highest actual average weekly working hours in 2023 were among self-employed, who worked 32.3 hours per week. Around 514,000 people in Sweden are self-employed, and the highest number of them were between 45 and 54 years old.

 25 to 54-year old worked the most hours

The lowest number of actual average working hours per week was among the youngest in the working population, aged 15 to 24 years. They worked on average 25.4 hours per week. The highest actual working hours were among 25 to 54-year old people, who worked on average 31 hours per week.

Over the period observed, the weekly average working time fell by a total of 0.7 hours, peaking at 40.3 weekly working hours in 2002 and reaching 39.4 hours in 2023. How much do Poles work? Poles have the average duration of working life in the European Union, working 35.2 years on average. For comparison, the EU average amounted to 36.9 years. However, they are among the busier nations in Europe, working an average of 39 hours per week. In 2023, most countries in the region worked longer during the week than the average for the 27 countries of the European Union. The longest annual working hours were in Hungary and Poland, with 1,848 hours, when the EU average amounted to 1,703 hours. In 2021, 63 percent of Poles worked 7–8 hours a day, while 21 percent worked even 10 hours a day or longer. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the average number of hours worked in the primary job in Poland amounted to nearly 39 hours per week. In that period, individuals employed in the private sector worked nearly two hours longer than in the public sector. Poles spent the most time working in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry, over 39 hours per week. Accidents at work In 2022, more than 66.6 thousand people were reported injured in accidents at work (3.2 percent less than in 2021), of which 180 people were fatally injured. In 2020, the decrease in the number of people injured was influenced by the situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In many areas, restrictions were imposed, and where the nature of the work allowed it, employers directed their employees to work remotely. In 2022, as in previous years, accidents were most common among men and those between 30 and 49 years. Most causes of accidents at work were improper behavior of the employee. A worker's failure to use protective equipment was the least common cause of accidents. In 2022, among those injured in occupational accidents, workers suffered wounds and superficial injuries, dislocations, sprains, twists, strains, and bone fractures. Considering the location of the injury, injured persons most often suffered injuries to the extremities.

In 2023, the hours worked by employees on the main job in Germany remained nearly unchanged at around 34.25 hours per week per person. Yet 2023 saw the lowest hours worked in this industry in Germany with 34.25 hours per week per person. Nevertheless, the hours worked has been subject to fluctuation over the observed period.

In December 2024, surveyed employees of enterprises in China worked an average of 49 hours per week. During 2023, the average weekly working hours of surveyed people employed in Chinese enterprises amounted to around 48.6 hours on average.

In 2023, employees in most Central and Eastern European countries worked longer than the average weekly number of hours at the main full-time job (39 hours) in the European Union. Serbs worked the longest, nearly 43 hours. Estonia, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia employees worked shorter than the EU average — below 39 hours per week.

In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the average Colombian worker put in the most hours in 2022, with 2,400 hours, or 46.3 hours per week. German workers spent the least amount of time on the job, with 1,340 hours on average that year, equal to 25.8 hours per week.

Between 2011 and 2023, full-time employees in Iceland worked significantly more than people in the four other Nordic countries and in the EU. In 2023, Icelanders worked 42.5 hours per week on average. Finns, Danes, and Norwegians worked the fewest hours on average. Both Swedes and Icelanders worked more hours than the EU average.

Since the last quarter of 2019, the number of hours worked per week in Brazil has fluctuated between 39.1 and 39.4. In the second quarter of 2024, the male population worked 41 hours per week, while the female population worked 36.9 hours.

In 2023, around 10.3 percent of male full-time employees in Japan worked 60 hours or more per week, compared to 4.5 percent of female full-time employees. The share of regular employees working 60 hours or more a week was highest among men in their forties.

In the third quarter of 2024, the average working hours for full-time workers in Scotland was 35.9 hours per week, down from the previous quarter when it was 36.1 hours.

Kiribati in the Pacific was the country with the lowest average weekly working hours per employee in 2022, with the most recent value showing that the population of Kiribati worked on average less than 28 hours per week. Second came Vanuatu at nearly 29 hours per week, with Micronesia following in third. On the other hand, Gambia had the highest average weekly working hours worldwide.