Young Americans and men with college degrees are leading the “stop” movement in the US, according to new research that sheds light on the phenomenon caused by the pandemic.
Men aged 25 to 39 worked 16 fewer hours a year – voluntarily rather than laid off – between 2019 and 2022, while men with at least a bachelor’s degree cut 14 hours, the most among any group, researchers from the University of Washington found. Those with higher incomes and who have worked the most have the largest reductions.
The shutdown shows workers are reducing the effort and time they spend on work, a phenomenon fueled by the pandemic that is forcing a global rethink of work-life balance. While recessions typically lead to a drop in working hours amid layoffs, the research found that the pandemic-driven decline was different, with large cuts driven by Americans opting for more flexible hours or work.
“The reduction of working hours may be permanent. And it will not be the wrong result,” wrote report authors Dain Lee, Jinhyeok Park and Yongseok Shin at the University of Washington in St. Louis.
Overall, US workers have worked 11 fewer hours during the pandemic than in previous years going back to 2007, according to the newspaper Where are the Workers? From great retreat to quiet. Men, who work more hours on average than women, log 16 fewer hours a year, while women cut six hours.
Despite the retreat from the workplace, Americans are still working more than any other advanced economy. US workers will average 1,791 hours in 2021, higher than Japan, Canada and the UK, according to OECD data cited by the author.
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