The shorter working year came from holidays as well as shorter days

Historical evidence for early-industrialized countries shows annual work hours falling substantially from nineteenth-century levels. The change combines shorter days, fewer days each week, and more time away across the year.

The path was neither uniform nor inevitable. Countries experienced different periods of decline, stagnation, and sometimes rising hours. An annual average also cannot describe every worker’s experience or every form of unpaid labor.

Giattino and Ortiz-Ospina reconstruct the trend from historical research and more recent statistics. Their account broadens the usual question about economic growth: additional productive capacity can appear as more goods, but also as time people no longer need to spend in paid work. Institutions and bargaining help determine how much of that possibility becomes part of ordinary life.