Working more? Working
less? What do Canadian workers prefer?
by Marie Drolet and René
Morissette
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies
Branch research paper series, No. 104
The persistance of high unemployment
rates typical of recessionary periods has renewed the interest in worktime reductions
as a means of increasing overall employment. Over the recent recession periods
(early 1980 and 1990), not only did unemployment rates remain high but an unequal
distribution of worktime as well as shifts to temporary, part-time and contract
employment were observed.
It is a known fact that during the 1980s, the
share of workers employed in jobs involving 35-40 hours or "standard"
workweek declined while the proportion of persons working either short or long
hours increased. If this resulting polarization in weekly hours worked is involuntary,
a growing number of Canadians will be dissatisfied with their workhours. Would
they prefer to change their work patterns? More precisely, how does the desire
to work fewer or more hours vary across demographic and job related characteristics?
Most
Canadians who would like a change in their workweek would prefer to work longer
rather than shorter hours. Those who want a shorter workweek are professionals,
managers and natural and social science workers, have high earnings, have high
levels of education, have long job tenure, are employed in permanent jobs and
already work longer hours. Married women who must take care of their young children
would also prefer shorter workhours. On the other hand, lone-parent mothers living
on their own are willing to work more hours even though their workweek is already
relatively long. Young workers with little seniority employed in low-skilled occupations
and holding temporary jobs seem to encounter the most severe hours constraints
in the Canadian labour market.
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