Magazine |
21 hour working week ‘should become the norm’

The highly respected think tank the New Economic Foundation has forecast that a shorter working week will be the norm as we continue to face economic uncertainty.

The report recorded several factors which is pushing the country towards a 21 hour working week. These include: lasting damage to the economy caused by the banking crisis, an increasingly divided society with too much over-work alongside too much unemployment, and an urgent need for deep cuts in environmentally damaging over-consumption. In addition, the research found that people are becoming increasingly self sufficient through a series of cooperatives and neighbourhood based activities.

The think tank said Britain should embrace this idea as a distinct possibility and not see it as a threat. They acknowledge however, that a cultural shift to a significantly different working week might be some way off.

Andrew Simms, co-author of the report and policy director at the Foundation, said: ‘The last two years revealed many to be consuming well beyond our economic means and beyond the limits of the natural environment… Our research shows that moving to a shorter working week could be the only way left untried to square this seemingly impossible circle. A cultural shift will throw up real challenges, but there could also be massive benefits for our economy, our quality of life and our planet.’

A shorter working week would go some way to tackle a range of socio-economic issues including unemployment, overwork, carbon emissions, low well being and entrenched inequalities, the authors of 21 hours claim. It would also allow more people to join the workforce.

17/02/10