Decline in Average Hours worked in Europe

In a newsletter from the International Monetary Fund (January 19) I read about a study which found that there was a decline in the amount of working hours in Europe for the average European. The title of the study is "Dissecting the decline in average hours worked in Europe" Here are some takeaways from the study. Almost all the sentences are directly quoted from the text of the study. I have not paraphrased them. --Average working hours across developed economies have been on a long term declining trend roughly halving between 1870 and 2000 in Germany. --Average working hours across OECD countries have decreased by 0.5 % per year between the 1870's and the early 2000's. --Why are average working hours on a downward trend in Europe? --Is a changing demographic contributing with an increasing share of workers or jobs with fewer working hours? --Or are workers across different demographic groups or job types all working less? --Decline in average hours worked since 2003 has been widespread across demographic groups, industries and occupations. --The study found that average hours worked across European countries is not cyclical but structural extending a long term trend. --The trend of lower working hours seems unlikely to reverse. --Bulk of the trend decline in hours primarily reflects worker preferences. --Increased income and wealth is likely to be the main force behind the decline in desired and actual hours worked. --There is a negative correlation between GDP per capita and average hours. --Hours have tended to fall more in those European countries where average hours were initially longest and those that experienced the highest growth rates in GDP per capita. --Technological progress has been the main force behind falling working hours in the labor market and at home in the last 200 years. --They highlight the income effect of rising real wages but also time saving appliances as well as the increased value of leisure as key mechanisms behind this trend. --From 1983 to 2015 Europeans worked 14 percent fewer hours than Americans during the same period. --Average hours worked are higher in lower income countries. --Aggregate actual hours worked fell from 35.37 hours per week in 2003 to 32.88 hours per week by 2019 with decline observed by all groups. --Demographic trends show that men with young children and young men work lesser hours. The amount of decline in working hours of women with young children is less. --Younger people tend to work less. Why is there a sharper decline for young part time workers? --The decline in average hours worked among young people appears to reflect in part the rising share of young people in school. The share of respondents answering in school as a reason for working zero hours has increased from 7.3 percent in 2006 to 12.6 in 2019. --Men and women with young children have seen a sharper decline in average hours worked than other groups. Countries with higher gdp per capita tend to have fewer average working hours. These are the findings of the study. If you wish to read the study in detail you could check out IMF.org and subscribe to their newsletter. I think it is awesome to work fewer hours. It gives us leisure to do the things we enjoy. For me it is writing, reading, drawing, and painting. I need to do the last two activities way more than I am doing now. I also like decorating, cooking etc.