The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure

Working more hours, if you are working at all, and enjoying it less? Why, contrary to all expectations, do Americans enjoy less leisure today than at any time since the end of WWII? In the last twenty years, employed Americans have seen their working hours increase by the equivalent of one month a year. Manufacturing employees work 320 hours longer a year. That’s two months more than their counterparts in Germany and France.

Recorded at Harvard.

Interviewed by David Barsamian.