Men working fewer hours: StatsCan
Eric Beauchesne, Canwest News Service
March 18, 2008

OTTAWA - We're getting older, and that, among other things, is showing up in a drop in the hours we're spending at work, at least for Canadian men, a new Statistics Canada study suggests.

Workers, on average, are putting in less time on the job than a decade ago as the proportion normally working a very long week of 49 hours or more has declined. It is a trend that was most pronounced among older workers, especially men, said the study, released Tuesday.

The trend to a shorter workweek on average has been underway for three decades.

Since 1976, the average workweek for all workers, including part-time and full-time, declined to 36.5 hours from 38.6 hours with 1.6 hours of the decline occurring in the first two decades, reflecting stronger growth in part-time work of less than 30 hours than full-time work.

"Between 1997 and 2006, the average number of working hours continued to fall even though more full-time workers entered the labour market," it said.

The further half-hour decline since 1997, in part, reflects the aging of the workforce, the study's author Jeannine Usalcas said in an interview….

In contrast, the study found that not only are women more likely to be employed now than a decade ago, their workweek has also increased by 0.6 hours to an average of 33.1 hours.

During this period, women shifted from working short hours or part-time hours to working 30 to 40 hours, it noted….

"Canada's strong labour market in the last 10 years also influenced the length of the work week," it said, explaining that it attracted more women, mothers with dependent children, young people, and older workers into the labour force - groups that generally prefer shorter hours.

The shift toward services-related jobs, which accounted for 85 per cent of the job growth over the decade, also had a big impact, it said, noting that workers in the services sector are more likely to put in a short or a standard work week while workers in the goods-producing sector tend to work standard to long work week.

…. "While education seems to influence hours worked by men, the standard work week for women varies minimally by education," it said….