Workin' 9 to 5.. sort of..

Recently US Senator (I-VT) Bernie Sanders said on C-SPAN's Washington Journal program:

"We now work the longest hours of any people around the world."

Politifact checked it out and determined that Sanders' stats were based on 1997 data.
When they checked further they ascertained that more recent data showed:

• The U.S ranked twelfth (out of 35 industrialized nations) when it comes to the annual number of hours actually worked per person. Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Mexico, Iceland, Italy, Korea, the Russian Federation, Estonia and Israel all worked longer hours.
• The number of hours worked by Americans has been gradually declining (though only slightly) over the last decade. And according to the ILO, we no longer work the longest hours. In fact, that hasn't been true for over a decade. And according to OECD statistics, the U.S. hasn't even cracked the Top 10 in over a decade.
• In all developing Asian economies where data were available, people historically worked more than in industrialized economies. This is a typical sign for developing economies as they often compensate for the lack of technology and capital with people working longer hours.

I am not sure what to make of these stats but I do wonder if it has anything to do with the way that jobs and manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries. What do you think? Do you agree that Americans are not working as many hours as we once did?