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Top 10 Hardest-Working Countries

Hardest-Working Countries
Maha Atal, 05.28.09, 08:10 PM EDT
Where do people spend the most time at their jobs?

What is your experience working in your country? What are the reasons for the country's or your own work ethic?

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Where in the world do folks work the hardest? A report released this spring from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of 30 countries with market economies, offers some clues.

Where it's dark outside, it seems everyone has his nose to the grindstone. Meanwhile, in the sunny Mediterranean where weekday siestas are the norm, the workday is short and sweet. We crunched the OECD's collection of labor statistics and came up with a list that shows Nordic countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway as the hardest-working countries.

Though Europeans often deride Americans for their workaholism, the U.S. barely makes the top 10 because of its lower employment rate, especially among young people.

8. Australia (tied)
8. United Kingdom (tied)
7. United States
6. Norway
5. Sweden
4. Canada
3. Denmark
2 Switzerland (tied)
2. New Zealand (tied)
1. Iceland

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