The CNN report neatly avoids the issue of exchange rates which has a major effect on the way these calculations are presented. The currently (very) weak US dollar makes the US figures seem much better. If the Dollar was to strengthen again then the opposite would become true very quickly.

As to the vacation days article, the data is meaningless without average daily work hours being factored in. (e.g. 232 days @ 8 hours = 1856 man-hours per year. 242 days @ 7.5 hours = 1815 man-hours). The comparison is only valid if you first ensure that average daily working hours is the same. For example in France they have a 35 hour week enshrined in law, whereas it varies elsewhere from 7 hours a day to 9 hours a day, and often people work more than that (12+ hour days are not uncommon for me!).

Therefore, don't trust one set of statistics in isolation, you need to look at a basket of stats to come with an overall viewpoint. This is a classic example of journalists exploiting statistics (badly) to make a headline.

Personally my experience of working in the UK, US, and about 10 European Countries is that we all work pretty much about the same.

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StumpyPete



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