In a survey by Harris Poll last year, most workers said they continued to feel burned out. In the early days of the pandemic, worker absences and persistent labor shortages forced millions of employees to put in more hours. Here’s why workers are putting in fewer hours: Better work-life balance Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate a solid 225,000 jobs were added last month but that would be down from an average 283,000 the past three months. The June jobs report, due out Friday, is expected to reveal whether the average workweek stayed low or declined further and whether job growth is slowing. “Though more people are working, they are working fewer hours on average,” economist Marisa Di Natale of Moody’s Analytics wrote in an analysis. As customer demand rises, employers generally give existing workers more hours until they’re forced to add new employees.Įconomists and staffing officials attribute the shorter workweek to employees’ desire for more flexible schedules and businesses' reluctance to lay off employees even as the economy slows, among other factors. The average workweek ticked up to 34.4 hours in June, Labor said Friday, but that's still historically low.Īt the same time, employers added a booming 306,000 jobs in May and a solid 209,000 in June, signaling a still-strong labor market. That’s more than half an hour less than the typical 35 hours they logged in January 2021 and matches the low reached shortly before COVID (excluding the depths of the crisis in March 2020), Labor Department figures show. In May, the average workweek edged down to 34.3 hours. “It gives me time so I can work on my craft,” says Adams, who paints, draws and sells her own jewelry.ĭuring the white-hot labor market of the past couple of years, Americans have been earning healthy wage increases but putting in fewer hours.
She typically works 20 to 30 hours a week but gets a full-time salary that tops her retail pay. So a year ago, she quit and took a position with a maid service that pays her a commission for each house cleaning she completes no matter how long it takes.
“They just kept piling on more jobs to do but they didn’t pay you more” for a standard 40-hour work week, says Adams, 30, who lives in Denver.
During the pandemic, Clarissa Adams, a manager for a popular chain of craft stores, worked harder to cover for missing workers and hunt for scarce job candidates.
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