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>Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 07:45:18 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Timework Web <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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>Subject: SWT: ILO Study: Americans Work Longest Hours
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>Study: Americans Work Longest Hours
>By Geir Moulson
>Associated Press Writer
>Sunday, September 5, 1999; 8:01 p.m. EDT
>
>GENEVA (AP) -- Americans work the longest hours in the industrialized
>world, overtaking the Japanese, according to a United Nations study
>released Monday.
>
>But the U.S. lead in productivity is being whittled away by their European
>and Japanese rivals, who are working less while Americans stay on the job
>more, said the report by the International Labor Organization.
>
>Hard-working Americans run a risk of burning out, said the ILO's Lawrence
>Jeff Johnson, co-author of the 600-page ``Key Indicators of the Labor
>Market'' report. The report was based on figures covering the years
>1980-1997.
>
>On average, U.S. workers clocked up 1,966 hours at work in the most recent
>year, the ILO study said. In 1980, the average was 1,883 hours.
>
>The Japanese were their nearest rivals. They worked an average 1,889 hours
>in the most recent year measured there, 1995, but have been spending less
>and less time on the job since clocking up more than 2,100 hours in 1980.
>
>The study, the first such comparison made by the ILO, found that U.S.
>workers first surpassed the Japanese in 1993.
>While U.S. labor productivity surged 20 percent from 1980 to 1996, Japan
>moved ahead by 38 percent, Johnson said.
>``While the benefits of hard work are clear, it is not at all clear that
>working more is the same thing as working better,'' ILO Director-General
>Juan Somavia noted.
>
>Western Europe also saw a significant fall in hours worked, the report
>said, with Norway producing the shortest hours among the industrial
>nations
>studied -- 1,399 hours, according to latest figures.
>French and German workers labored for 1,656 and 1,574 hours respectively
>in
>1997. In 1980, they worked 1,809 hours and 1,742 hours.
>
>But that trend toward less work was accompanied by a faster increase in
>productivity than in the United States. France progressed by 30 percent
>and
>Germany by 31 percent, the report said.
>
>``As an American myself, working long hours is part of the culture,''
>Johnson said. ``Whether it's correct, whether it's value-added, in the
>long
>haul, who knows.''
>
>``People do burn out,'' he said. ``If they keep working this hard for
>these
>long hours there is burnout and there is diminishing returns.''
>Elsewhere, the report noted ``very little productivity improvement'' in
>Latin America over the past two decades, while working hours -- between
>1,800 and 2,000 hours annually -- fell only slightly.
>
>(c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
>
>Tom Walker
>TimeWork Web
>http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/worksite.htm
>
