Earlier today, the UK's Office of National Statistics released a document entitled "Hours worked in the labor market" that sought to evaluate exactly how much British workers have been working, and how that's changed over time.

One detail that stuck out to us was the list of longest working weeks in Europe that the report compiled. Two lists were compiled featuring the average working weeks for all of those employed, and another just for those in full time employment.

Interestingly, while the UK comes high in full time working, it doesn't feature so at all when we look at the top 20 longest working weeks for all of those employed — presumably because the country employs a larger proportion of part time workers.

(In fact, the difference between the two lists seems to suggest that part time labour could be a rich country problem — or that part time workers in poorer countries work longer hours.)

However there is one country that comes 1st and 2nd on both lists — and it's not a country renowned for hard work at the moment. Take a look at the list of longest work weeks (compared to their full time only working weeks) below.

(For reference, the EU average working week for all in employment is 37.4 hours)

UPDATE: For another take on the statistics, take a look here for Europe's 20 most productive countries >

