What is the average work week in the us

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Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. In September , the average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in the United States was at The data have been seasonally adjusted. Employed persons consist of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average workweek for all employees including part-time working in private industries in the United States amounted to about In one month, the U.

The average work week differs heavily from industry to industry. An employee in the mining and logging industry worked about Loading statistic Show source. Download for free You need to log in to download this statistic Register for free Already a member? Log in. Show detailed source information? Register for free Already a member? More information. Supplementary notes. Other statistics on the topic. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance.

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Career Advice FAQs. Table of Contents Expand. Table of Contents. Average Hours per Week Worked. Hours Worked in Other Countries. Hours by Gender. Weekend Work. Hours by Location. Young people and the elderly may not work as many hours as people between the ages of 25 and 64 years old because young people often have school and the elderly are likely to retire.

This means that people younger than 25 and older than 64 may have more part-time jobs, which lowers their overall average working hours per week. There are also stricter requirements for working conditions when employees are under 18 years old, so they often work fewer hours overall.

Your family situation may change how many hours you work per week depending on whether you have people at home to take care of and a partner or other family members to share your responsibility. Often, having someone at home to take care of, like children or elderly parents, can lower the average number of hours you work each week. This is typically more likely when you have someone else, like a partner, sibling or other trusted adult, who can also work to pay for living expenses for your family.

Those who take care of children and parents on their own may actually work longer average hours across several jobs to cover the costs of living. Family situations like these can greatly increase the amount of time you spend working each week. Depending on where you live and work, there may be more opportunities for certain types of jobs, and this variation may affect the average hours worked each week in your area.

Some geographical locations have more full-time jobs and fewer part-time jobs, while others have the opposite structure. These differences can lead to the average workweek for an area being longer or shorter depending on how many people can work 40 hours per week in a full-time job and how many work less than that.

However, your location may also determine the industries available to you, which can also affect how many hours you work each week. For example, if you live in a town near a college, there may be many jobs in food service or retail that rarely require overtime, while living in a city may give you opportunities to work in an IT job that frequently requires working after hours.

Your level of education can also change how much you work each week, as people with different credentials may have different types of jobs and responsibilities. It's typical for people with high school diplomas to work jobs that require longer hours than those with advanced degrees. Despite many careers with longer hours requiring degrees, the average hours for all jobs held by people with bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees are shorter than the average hours for jobs that don't require college diplomas.

One reason for this difference is because many jobs that don't require a college education need other skills and dedication, which includes working long hours in many instances. Since jobs in construction, extraction and agriculture rarely follow a traditional workday, they may not fit as easily into the standard hour workweek.

Another factor that influences the average hours in a workweek is the local and national economy. The economy can change the average in different ways depending on your local industries and other factors, like your education and previous experience.

Most often, a stable economy supports a typical hour workweek, and many people can find jobs they enjoy that meet that standard. In an unstable economy, it may be more challenging to find a full-time job, so you may look for part-time or gig jobs for income.

When many people have to take part-time jobs to get money, this can lower the average hours worked in a specific area. Consider the following careers that regularly have longer averages for the hours employees work per week:. Marine: Working in a marine career includes jobs on boats and water, like ship captains, cargo boat operators and aquatic engineers. Employees in this field often work longer hours than the national average because they travel for long periods on the water and ensure the safety of a marine vessel and its cargo at all times.