Working Hours Statistics (2026)

The average American workweek is 34.4 hours, or 38.3, or 41.9, or 42.9, depending on who is counting and how. The first is paid hours per private payroll job, part-timers included, from employer records. The second is hours actually worked by everyone at work, from a household survey. The third is the same survey's figure for people who usually work full time. The fourth is what full-time workers tell Gallup. All four are from 2025 or 2026 and all four are right about what they measure.

The pages that rank for this question present Gallup's 47-hour figure from 2014 as current, treat the 34.4-hour payroll average as the full-time workweek, and compare theoretical 2,080-hour years with actual hours worked. This page explains the four measures, then covers hours by industry and occupation, the share working long hours, multiple jobholding, the US against other countries, the trend since 1964, after-hours work and the gap between hours worked and hours wanted, with the sample and date on each figure.

Four averages and why they differ

The payroll figure counts hours paid, including paid leave, per job, and is pulled down by part-time jobs and by people holding more than one. The household figure counts hours worked across all jobs and asks people to recall them, which research summarized on our time tracking statistics page shows adds about 4%. The time-diary figure is per day and only for days worked. Gallup's figure excludes anyone under 30 hours. Two caveats apply to the 2025 household figures: BLS collected no October 2025 data because of the federal shutdown, so the annual averages are eleven-month averages, and the time use survey was suspended from 1 October to 12 November. The International Labor Organization's harmonized figure for the US, 37.5 hours per employed person in 2025, sits where the household data say it should.

Hours by industry and occupation

Payroll hours in September 2026, all employees, from BLS Table B-2: mining and logging 45.8, utilities 42.2, manufacturing 40.6, wholesale trade 39.4, construction 39.2, transportation and warehousing 38.0, financial activities 37.5, information 36.9, professional and business services 36.7, private education and health 32.7, other services 32.1, retail trade 30.6, leisure and hospitality 25.5. Among production workers, mining and logging reached 47.6 and manufacturing 42.0.

The household survey's Table 21 tells a different story once part-time work is removed. Among people who usually work full time, the industry range is narrow: mining 49.0, transportation and utilities 43.1, manufacturing 42.3, construction 42.0, finance 41.8, professional services 41.9, education and health 41.1, retail 41.6, leisure and hospitality 41.1. The gap between a 25.5-hour payroll average in hospitality and a 45.8-hour one in mining is almost entirely part-time share, not how long full-timers work. By occupation group, full-timers in natural resources and construction averaged 42.1 hours, management and professional 42.1, production and transportation 42.4, sales and office 41.3 and service 41.2.

Long hours, overtime and second jobs

In 2025, 21.7% of people at work, about 34.3 million, worked 41 hours or more in the reference week; 13.8% worked 49 or more; and 5.5%, about 8.7 million, worked 60 or more. Just under half, 48.7%, worked exactly 40, and 23.2% worked 1 to 34 hours. Manufacturing overtime averaged 3.0 hours per employee in September 2026 and 4.0 for production workers. Gallup's 2024 panel found burnout rising sharply once self-reported hours pass 45 a week, with engaged employees' burnout rate doubling beyond that point.

Nine million Americans, 5.5% of the employed, held more than one job in September 2026, per the Employment Situation, 6.4% of women and 4.7% of men; 5.2 million combined a full-time primary job with a part-time second one and 421,000 held two full-time jobs. The 2025 annual rate was 5.4%, up from 5.2% in 2024. Multiple jobholders worked 7.97 hours on days worked and 77.4% of them worked on an average day, against 7.63 hours and 64.3% for single jobholders. Our overtime calculator covers the pay side of long hours.

The US against other countries

The OECD's measure is average annual hours actually worked per worker. The 2025 figures:

Americans worked 64 hours more than the OECD average and 468 hours, nearly twelve 40-hour weeks, more than Germans. The US figure has been flat at about 1,800 since 2022 while Korea fell from 1,900 to 1,833 and the OECD average from 1,749 to 1,736. The OECD cautions that these figures are built from different national sources and are better for trends than for exact level comparisons. Our guide to work hours in a year covers how the 1,800 compares with the 2,080-hour calendar.

The trend since 1964

The longest payroll series, production and nonsupervisory employees in total private industry, ran 38.2 hours in January 1964, 37.3 in 1970, 35.4 in 1980, 34.5 in 1990, 34.4 in 2000, 33.3 in 2010, 33.6 in 2020 and 33.8 in September 2026, per BLS data mirrored at FRED. The paid workweek fell 4.4 hours over six decades, almost all of it before 2010, as part-time work grew. The all-employee series, which begins in 2006 at 34.2, hit a record 35.0 in January 2021 and a low of 33.7 in June 2009.

Among full-time workers, Gallup's panel found self-reported hours fell from 44.1 in 2019 to 42.9 in 2024, with workers under 35 cutting nearly two hours and older workers just under one. Gallup's analysis of time-use data found people in heavily remote roles worked about an hour less a day in 2022 than in 2019, with 30 to 60 minutes going to leisure. The ILO's harmonized US figure fell from 38.3 hours in 2019 to 37.5 in 2025. Our four-day work week statistics page covers the trials that would take that further.

After-hours, weekend and at-home work

On an average weekday in 2025, 81% of employed people worked; on an average weekend day, 30%. Full-time workers averaged 8.45 hours on weekdays worked and 5.49 on weekend days worked. Thirty-five percent of employed people did some or all of their work at home on days they worked, 38% of women and 31% of men, rising to 51.4% of workers with a bachelor's degree or higher; those working at home averaged 5.10 hours there against 7.87 at a workplace. Pew's 2023 survey of 5,188 workers found 55% responding to work messages outside normal hours at least sometimes and 28% often, rising to 39% among upper-income and 41% among postgraduate workers. Microsoft's telemetry to February 2025 found the average user sending or receiving more than 50 messages outside core hours, meetings after 8pm up 16% on the year and 29% of active workers back in their inbox by 10pm, across a global user base. Our workplace communication statistics page covers that data.

Hours worked against hours wanted

Pew found 66% of US workers saying they work about the right number of hours, 24% too many and 10% too few. Too many rose with income, from 12% of lower-income to 30% of upper-income workers; too few ran the other way, 23% of lower-income against 4% of upper-income. Twenty-nine percent said their job was stressful all or most of the time and 19% overwhelming. On the BLS side, 4.5 million people were working part time for economic reasons in September 2026, and those working 1 to 34 hours for economic reasons averaged 22.6 hours. The hours problem runs in both directions: a quarter of the workforce wants fewer hours and a tenth, concentrated at the bottom of the income scale, wants more. Our workplace stress statistics page covers what long hours do.

Figures to stop using

• "Americans work 47 hours a week." Gallup's 2014 phone survey of 1,271 full-time workers. Gallup's 2024 panel figure is 42.9, from a different method.
• "The average workweek is 34.4 hours" as if it were full time. It is paid hours per job across all private employees including part-timers. Full-timers average 41.9 hours at work.
• "Americans work 1,811" or "1,791" or "1,796 hours a year." Different OECD vintages and series. The current total-employment figure is 1,800 for 2025; the employee-only series is 1,814.
• "Americans work 1,800 hours against a 2,080-hour year." 2,080 is a theoretical full-time schedule, not a measurement.
• "Americans work 7.66 hours a day." On days worked only; 65.5% of employed people work on a given day.
• "35% of Americans work from home." 35% did some work at home on a day worked, averaging 5.1 hours there.
• "Manufacturing workers average a 40-hour week." All manufacturing employees average 40.6; production workers 42.0 with 4.0 hours of overtime.
• Microsoft's "275 interruptions a day" is global telemetry for the top fifth of users.

Key takeaways

• The average US private payroll job paid 34.4 hours a week in September 2026, including part-time jobs. People at work averaged 38.3 hours and full-time workers 41.9 in 2025.
• Full-time hours barely vary by industry, 41.1 to 43.1 outside mining. Payroll averages range from 25.5 in hospitality to 45.8 in mining because of part-time share.
• 21.7% of people at work logged 41 hours or more in 2025, 13.8% logged 49 or more and 5.5%, about 8.7 million, logged 60 or more.
• 9.0 million Americans, 5.5% of the employed, held more than one job in September 2026; 421,000 held two full-time jobs.
• Americans worked 1,800 hours in 2025 against an OECD average of 1,736, 1,533 in the UK and 1,332 in Germany. Mexico led at 2,205.
• The production workers' paid week fell from 38.2 hours in 1964 to 33.8 in 2026, almost all before 2010. Full-timers' self-reported hours fell from 44.1 to 42.9 between 2019 and 2024.
• 35% of employed people did some work at home on days worked in 2025, averaging 5.1 hours there against 7.9 at a workplace.
• 24% of workers say they work too many hours and 10% too few, with the first concentrated at high incomes and the second at low ones.