Interesting research on labour market trends

NewEconomist presents us with some very interesting papers on the long term trends in working time in industrialized countries. The brief yet telling conclusion is that the average our of working time has declined.

NBER working paper by Valerie A. Ramey and Neville Francis (PDF)

'Has leisure increased over the last century? Standard measures of hours worked suggest that it has. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive measure of non-leisure hours that includes market work, home production, commuting and schooling for the last 105 years. We also present empirical and theoretical arguments for a definition of “per capita” that encompasses the entire population.'

Alexander Ueberfeldt (Bank of Canada working paper 2006-18)

'From 1870 to 2000, the workweek length of employed persons decreased by 41 per cent in industrialized countries. The employment rate, employment per working age person, displays large movements but no clear secular pattern. This motivated the question: What accounts for the large decrease in the workweek length and developments in the employment rate over the past 130 years?'

These two papers represent important aspects of long term trends in industrialized countries' labour market so they are definitely worth bookmarking for later reference