Greeks worked more than all Europeans in 2023 according to Eurostat data. In 2023, the actual weekly hours worked by people aged 20-64 in their main jobs in EUwill average 36.1 hours, the statistical service notes.
A closer look at EU countries reveals significant differences. The longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), Romania (39.5), Poland (39.3) and Bulgaria (39.0). The shortest is in the Netherlands (32.2 hours), followed by Austria (33.6) and Germany (34.0). Only workers from non-EU countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia work more hours than the Greeks.
The economic activities that will record the longest working week in the EU in 2023 are agriculture, forestry and fisheries (41.5 hours), mining and quarrying (39.1) and construction (38. 9), and the shortest working week was recorded in household activities (26.7 hours), education (31.9), arts, recreation and leisure (33.0).
Labor productivity is the number of goods and services that a group of workers produces in a certain period of time (in the calculations above per hour). The indicator characterizes labor productivity. And here the residents of Greece, according to the statistics above, have serious problems.
For example: the highest labor productivity among EU countries is observed in Ireland ($125.09), followed by Norway ($100.33) and Switzerland ($82.92). Bulgaria has the lowest labor productivity in Europe ($26.55), followed by Croatia ($32.26) and Greece ($33.03).
In this map, we see that the highest labor productivity in Asia is found in Singapore ($54.55), followed by Hong Kong ($49.12) and Taiwan ($46.01). Cambodia has the lowest labor productivity in Asia ($3.43), followed by Bangladesh ($4.79) and Myanmar ($5.15).
Interestingly, China has one of the lowest labor productivity rates in Asia, despite being one of the world's largest economies. The source notes that China remains largely dependent on the production and export of goods that are produced using cheap labor.
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