South Korea dwarfs Canada in hours worked per year

European's Enjoy many more Stat Holidays then we do ......

You have to take everything into account. South Korea's population is approximately 48 Million people vs Canada's 40 Million. Also - South Korea is 1/100th the physical land size of Canada. Not to mention a lot of South Korean's work in Factory's (even more so than in Canada).

Just a few South Korean companies:

Hyundai

Daewoo

Hynix

What i'm trying to point out is that although South Korea may work more hours - most of that is probably because those people work in Factories (semi- easy job to do) and they get paid well for it. Also - Canada is more service based like most western countries rather than a manufacturing - type country (such as South Korea, or China).

We've already gone through our manufacturing phase for Canada (around the time of world war 1 -2) so now we've progressed far enough we do not need to work as many hours.

Countries that are still developing (not that South Korea isn't developed) usually will be manufacturing based economies due to the nature of the current world.

What i'm saying is this isn't a bad thing - they work more hours because that's just the phase they are at right now. Eventually a smaller country will most likely in the future take over South Korea's manufacturing business and South Korea will also turn more to a service based economy and also work less hours. It may take decades, but it will happen.

Another good example is the USA. They usually design technology, but the actual creation of the technology piece is created in South Korea and or other Asian countries.

Business as usual :)

Canada is obsessed with money, back home, me sit around and smoke some gunja and enjoy me life..ere you work like a slave. big up to all dem rude bois.

The comment about most Koreans working in factories couldn't be more from the truth. The fact is Korea has little to no natural resources so their "man power" and work ethic is their resource. They work long hard hours and get paid a lot less doing it than most Europeans or N.Americans. They big corporations aren't unionized and they take more pride in their country and its success as a whole and know if they work hard and their company does well, they are benefitting their country. Here we worry more about the individual and unions create a situation where workers want to get paid as much as possible for as little money. I lived in Korea for 2 years, I tutored many Hyundai businessmen. They make maybe half of what someone would make in an equivalent job at Ford and work way more. They guys I tutored (white collared business men and engineers) would work easily about 60+ hours a week, got paid around $40-$50 000 a year and only every got 1 week vacation unless you moved way up in the company.

productivity in canada is 1.1% while in usa it is 2.5% (recently jumped to 5-6% due to so called "jobless recovery", which means that many of those who work they actually "work", i.e. fake jobs. Otherwise why would productivity jumped only after 3-4 millions of people lost their "jobs"). basically, on every five workers (white collars to be more precise) only one work, the other four "work", i.e. they are on "decorative", fake "jobs". It will be interesting to see canada productivity numbers for 2009/2010, I expect productivity will jump to 4%. So yes, canadians "work" too much

Ya in Canada our stat holidays are a joke, we don't get one for about 3 months after christmas. And most bosses bitch if you want a week or two off. I dunno where this 35 hour week comes from, because every job i've ever had has been 40 or more, and dick head bossed begging for you to work OT. While boss man buggers off to drink beer. Stats are lame.

boss is bitchy cause he also "works", i.e. not working at all. 80% are fake jobs on invented "projects" to double-cross shareholders so they can get money from them. in order to convince them to give him money bosses are bitchy to form impression they are working on something (and productivity increased sharply when they all loose their "jobs" (so called "jobless recovery")

I want to know where these 35 hour work week jobs that give you two weeks a year off are. I have worked in the private sector and had jobs where I worked 70 hours in an office where we were technically "entitled" to two weeks off and rarely got more than a few days here and there but never all in 1 block. Since then I have left that and gone on to work for the federal government where I typically work about 60 hours a week (working through lunches) and I sure as hell don't get to use my vacation time that often, in fact I don't usually get time off until I bank so many hours of vacation time they are forced to make me take it.
As a person in my 30's I know few people who actually work less than 50 hours. ( and that includes teachers )

I work close to 100 hours a week, but I own my own business where I have to produce items as well as sell them directly and to stores(I'm a designer in the fashion industry). Dream jobs comes with a lot of hard work... Until I can freely hire enough staff I will continue working these hours.

To James McRae...

You go from saying Manufacturing (working in factories) is further from the truth to saying "their main power" and work ethic is their resource. 42% of Koreans work in factories, get over it.
You make it sound like it's a bad thing they work in factories - it's not. It provides us western countries with Vehicles, computer chips...textiles, etc.

Because of the countries small size they have also one of the largest population densities in the world too (which is why factories do so well there). Please, PLEASE go look up information on South Korea, your lack of globalization/worldly knowledge frightens me.

I work 40 hours a week now and that is the least amount of hours I have ever put in. Every other job has been 50-60- hours a week. Most people I know are doing 40 hours or more. Where are these jobs? Could it be that a lot of hours are unreported? I have worked for companies that refuse timesheets that read over 40. As a manager everything read 40 hours although I often put in 60 or more not counting the numnerous phone calls I took when I was not at work.

The same people who made this study should "WAKE UP"???????????????????????
Did you ever try to study "Canadian Truck Drivers" and sleeping habits. The Canadian Safety Act and "Hours of Service" should be changed. There are more accidents in Canada because of tired drivers and Canadian Law "forcing" (at the hands of Trucking Companies and sanctioned by the Government) drivers to drive 13 hours per day and working days of 16 hours. The same people who made these statements should take note that there are more fatalities in Canada because of fatigued drivers than anywhere on the globe.

35 hours/week? really? They must of studied people who work part time. lol

I've work on average for the past 6 years, 59 hours a week.......

The reason why Greece is rated number 2 on working the most hours is the exact same reason why they need this HUGE bailout! They aren't doing any work while they are at work, getting paid overtime to slack off! HALF of the country is employed as government workers, more and more money is needed to pay these bloated civil servants with wage increases each year!

well here we go I don't know where these pull these ficticous numbers from on how many hours we work but I've worked since i was young and when i worked partime after school I worked an average of 40 hours per week already. After school and went to collage and started workiing full time i never worked a week under 50 hours plus some weeks i worked 80 hours thats a 160 every 2 weeeks. The numbers they come up with are bs and i know alot of people and worked in all provinces and most people in Canada are working 40 plus hour per week and have 2 incomes to support their families because high cost of living and price of homes is retarted a 1900s home that has been reovated once or twice in this country alone goes for 130 000 when a new home goes for 400 000 which any person in this world knows we can't afford our income for most people is still average and we work more and more every year for nothing and for the fat banks and rich who keep on taking what we work for.

I've worked both in Canada and in Hong Kong and in the same industry. It's not the working hours but the work environment that counts. I've worked roughly the same hours in Canada and in Hong Kong, on average 9 hours per day (actually work hours in Hong Kong are slightly longer, could sometimes be 10-11 hours), but in Hong Kong you do twice the work for the same amount of time as in Canada. This could get really tiring and by the end of the day you feel like you have been working for 16 hours straight.

yeah , id have to saw we work a bit too much... since i was young, working as a part-time grocery clerk during schooll i maintained an average of 40 hours a week (but at least they let me take my vacatioin time when i wanted it). Now i work part-time for a provincially owned Casino, as a government employee. i work an average 45+ hours a week (almost as much at the full-timers) and they NEVER allow anyone to cash in on their rightful holliday time. ive got full and part timers constantly being denied for their request of 5 days off in a row, let alone a week or two. The people are misrible and they only put up with it becuase my departmenty pays very well. i Guess i am wrong, but i kind of figured if any employment entity would honor a workers vaction time request it would be the government... instead grocery stores like NoFrills seem to be doing much better in that regard. regardless, come the end of the year theres going to be 80 people in my department who will be forced into taking their vacation time whenthey dont want it, so the paperwork can show that they took the time off..

If you work to much, the problem doesn't lie in the power a boss has over you, but consists in your own incapability to say 'no.'

Norway and the Netherlands rank the highest on the HDI and are considered to have the highest quality life in the world. There is no competition with those countries, they have set the standard to which the rest of the world is still failing at.