Americans need to take a break

AMERICANS CELEBRATE Thanksgiving on November 22nd, and having gorged on turkey and cranberry sauce, will take the next day off as well to do some Christmas shopping. That represents a rare break in what, by global standards, is a Stakhanovite regime. In a typical year the average American works 100 more hours than a Briton, 300 more than a French employee and 400 more hours than a German.

The gap with Europe is partly explained by the number of days’ holiday that Americans take each year. In 2017 the average American took 17.2 days of vacation. That was a slight rise on the 16 days recorded in 2014 but still below the 1978-2000 average of 20.3 days. Around half of all workers do not take their full allotment of days off, which averages around 23 days. In effect, many Americans spend part of the year working for nothing, donating the equivalent of $561 on average to their firms.