Working Long Hours? You’re Not Alone

The UN News Center reports on a new study by the United Nations labour agency finds that more than one in five workers around the world – over 600 million people – are working “excessively” long hours.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 22 per cent of the global workforce are still working more than 48 hours a week, “often merely to make ends meet.”

The study, Working Time Around the World: Trends in working hours, laws and policies in a global comparative perspective, spotlights working time in over 50 countries, and for the first time explores the implications for working time policies in developing and transition countries.

“The good news is that progress has been made in regulating normal working hours in developing and transition countries, but overall the findings of this study are definitely worrying, especially the prevalence of excessively long hours,” said Jon C. Messenger, Senior Research Officer for the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment Programme and a co-author of the study.