The Longest Week In Europe
As Europe's leaders gather to discuss how to rescue the Mediterranean economies and safeguard the single currency, it's tempting to resort to crude national stereotypes of prudent, hard-working Germans and lazy Greeks.
But the Office for National Statistics seems to be on a mission to rescue us from our own prejudices. New data published this morning shows that Greek workers actually put in longer hours than anyone else in Europe — 42.2 per week, compared to just 35.6 in Germany. If you look at full-time figures, it is even starker.
Workers in the UK are in the middle of the pack, working 36.3 hours, about an hour a week less than the EU average; but the ONS points out that's because of the growing prevalence of part-time work, as flexible hours have become more common. If you look at full-time work, it puts us the top of the biggest economies in the region.
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