Ethics Newsline®

GENEVA
U.S. workers put in more hours and are more productive than workers in any other industrialized country, according to a new report released last week by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO).

Workers in the United States clocked an average 1,966 hours in 1997, surpassing Japanese workers by nearly 100 hours (1995 figures), and French and German workers by more than 300 hours, the Associated Press reported.

But while the United States leads the way in working hours and productivity, other nations are catching up — without burning as much midnight oil. U.S. labor productivity rose 22 percent from 1980 to 1996; Japanese productivity jumped 38 percent during that same time, even as workers’ hours decreased, according to the ILO survey.

“While the benefits of hard work are clear, it is not at all clear that working more is the same thing as working better,” observed ILO director-general Juan Somavia.

The UN survey of workplace productivity covered 240 nations and territories between 1980 and 1997.