From Fortune magazine:

1. A growing body of research is pointing to a decrease in men, particularly millennials, taking on traditional nine-to-five jobs, as an ongoing trend. The typical male worker in the U.K. is clocking fewer hours per week than baby boomers did at the end of the 20th century, a study by the ONS showed.

2. With events like the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shifting employer-employee dynamics, emerging research suggests that men in the U.K. have been at the forefront of the trend of working fewer hours, particularly since the late 90s. In contrast, female workers have seen an increase in workload, according to the ONS.

3. The rise in men working fewer hours in the UK also fits with a longer-term trend of men exiting the labor force on both sides of the Atlantic. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston found that men without four-year college degrees have been leaving the workforce at a higher rate, driven by falling wages and a decline in social status.

4. The decline in working hours among men in the U.K. appears to be even more pronounced since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, echoing trends seen in the U.S. Among younger men, there has been a significant decrease in working hours, especially for those with bachelor’s degrees, as more of them chose to work fewer hours after the pandemic.

5. As U.K. men continue to work fewer hours, policymakers face challenges in stimulating productivity growth. While the ONS has suggested that declining hours among workers have had a relatively small impact on the U.K.’s economic growth trajectory, it’s becoming more apparent post-pandemic, impacting sluggish productivity growth efforts.

6. Big Four accountancy KPMG forecasts the U.K. economy to register modest growth of 0.5% in 2024, while the U.S. GDP is expected to accelerate nearly three times as fast at 1.4%. Policymakers must address the declining hours worked by men and its impact on the overall economy to spur sustainable growth.



Read more: Young U.K. men are cutting their working hours, impacting the economy