Quick answer
The average work week in the US was 34.4 hours for all private-sector employees in October 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure includes part-time staff. People who usually work full time averaged 41.9 hours in 2025, and on days they worked, full-timers put in about 8.1 hours.
Average work week hours in the US depend on who you count. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in its Employment Situation release of November 6, 2026 that private-sector employees averaged 34.4 hours a week in October 2026 (preliminary, seasonally adjusted). That average mixes full-time and part-time jobs. Count only people who usually work full time and the average rises to 41.9 hours (2025, Current Population Survey). This page explains each measure and collects the latest hours worked statistics, each linked to the table it comes from.
The national average workweek
Three federal surveys measure average work week hours, and they answer different questions. Knowing which is which explains why one source says 34 hours and another says 42.
- 34.4 hours: average weekly hours paid to all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in October 2026, from the employer survey (Current Employment Statistics, CES). It was 34.2 in October 2025. (BLS Table B-2)
- 33.8 hours: the same measure for production and nonsupervisory employees, the mostly hourly workforce, in October 2026. (BLS Table B-7)
- 38.3 hours: average hours actually worked by everyone at work in 2025, from the household survey (Current Population Survey, CPS). This counts people, not jobs, and covers the self-employed and government workers. (CPS Table 19)
- 41.9 hours: CPS average for people who usually work full time, 35 hours or more, in 2025.
- Goods-producing industries averaged 40.2 hours in October 2026; private service-providing industries averaged 33.3.
| Measure | Survey | Period | Average weekly hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| All private employees | CES (employers) | October 2026 (p) | 34.4 |
| Production and nonsupervisory employees | CES (employers) | October 2026 (p) | 33.8 |
| All people at work | CPS (households) | 2025 | 38.3 |
| People who usually work full time | CPS (households) | 2025 | 41.9 |
Sources: BLS Tables B-2 and B-7, released November 6, 2026; CPS Table 19, 2025 annual averages. (p) = preliminary. BLS notes that the 2025 CPS averages cover 11 months and exclude October 2025, when data were not collected because of the federal government shutdown.
Why the gap? CES counts each job separately, so a person with two part-time jobs adds two short workweeks. CPS counts each person once, across all jobs, and counts hours actually worked rather than hours paid. Workzenly calculation: 34.4 hours a week over 52 weeks is about 1,789 hours a year per private payroll job. For the standard 2,080-hour full-time year, see work hours in a year.
What this means for employers: When you benchmark your schedules, compare like with like. A 34-hour national average does not mean your full-timers are working short; it reflects millions of part-time jobs. For where the full-time line sits under federal and state rules, read how many hours is full time.
Average hours by industry
Industry is the biggest driver of average work week hours. These are average weekly hours for all private employees in October 2026, preliminary and seasonally adjusted, from BLS Table B-2.
| Industry | All employees, Oct 2025 | All employees, Oct 2026 (p) | Production and nonsupervisory, Oct 2026 (p) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total private | 34.2 | 34.4 | 33.8 |
| Mining and logging | 45.2 | 45.8 | 47.1 |
| Utilities | 42.4 | 43.1 | 43.1 |
| Manufacturing | 40.0 | 40.5 | 41.8 |
| Wholesale trade | 39.2 | 39.5 | 39.5 |
| Construction | 38.9 | 39.4 | 40.1 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 38.3 | 37.8 | 37.4 |
| Financial activities | 37.5 | 37.5 | 37.4 |
| Information | 37.3 | 37.0 | 35.7 |
| Professional and business services | 36.6 | 36.8 | 36.8 |
| Private education and health services | 32.7 | 32.8 | 31.8 |
| Other services | 32.0 | 32.1 | 31.0 |
| Retail trade | 29.9 | 30.2 | 30.7 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 25.6 | 25.5 | 24.1 |
Sources: BLS Tables B-2 and B-7, seasonally adjusted. (p) = preliminary.
- The gap between the longest and shortest industry workweeks was 20.3 hours in October 2026 (Workzenly calculation: 45.8 minus 25.5).
- In mining, manufacturing and construction, hourly staff work longer weeks than the all-employee average. Production and nonsupervisory manufacturing workers averaged 41.8 hours, with 4.1 of them overtime. (Table B-7)
- Manufacturing employees overall averaged 3.1 overtime hours a week in October 2026, up from 2.9 a year earlier. More detail is in our overtime statistics.
- Hourly staff in leisure and hospitality averaged just 24.1 hours, and in retail 30.7 hours.
What this means for employers: In restaurants and retail, short average weeks mean most of the workforce is part time, so the scheduling job is spreading hours fairly and keeping a few full-timers from drifting past 40. In construction and manufacturing, the average hourly worker is already over 40, so every added shift is overtime under the FLSA and any state overtime law.
How many people work 40 hours a week
The 40-hour week is still the single most common schedule by far. These are 2025 annual averages of hours actually worked in the survey week, from CPS Table 19. Shares are Workzenly calculations from the published counts.
| Hours worked in the week | People at work (thousands) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 14 hours | 7,653 | 4.9% |
| 15 to 29 hours | 17,757 | 11.3% |
| 30 to 34 hours | 11,191 | 7.1% |
| 35 to 39 hours | 10,052 | 6.4% |
| 40 hours | 76,804 | 48.7% |
| 41 to 48 hours | 12,474 | 7.9% |
| 49 to 59 hours | 13,062 | 8.3% |
| 60 hours and over | 8,744 | 5.5% |
| Total at work | 157,736 | 100% |
Source: BLS, Current Population Survey, Table 19, 2025 annual averages (11-month averages excluding October). Rows may not sum exactly because of rounding in the published table.
- 76.80 million people, 48.7% of those at work, worked exactly 40 hours. In 2019 the share was 46.6% (71.01 million of 152.24 million; CPS Table 19, 2019).
- 23.2% worked fewer than 35 hours, the BLS line between part time and full time. Our part-time employment statistics cover who they are and why.
- 21.7% worked more than 40 hours, and 5.5% worked 60 hours or more.
- Men were more likely to work long weeks: 6.19 million men worked 60 hours or more, compared with 2.55 million women.
What this means for employers: Close to half of workers sit exactly on 40 hours, which is also the federal overtime line. A few unrecorded minutes before or after a shift can push a 40-hour week into overtime. A time card calculator helps you check totals quickly.
Average hours by age, sex and job
These CPS figures are 2025 annual averages for people at work in nonagricultural industries (CPS Table 22) and for all industries by occupation (CPS Table 23).
- By age: workers 16 to 19 averaged 23.7 hours, ages 20 to 24 34.2, ages 25 to 54 39.9, and ages 55 and over 37.4.
- By sex: men at work averaged 40.1 hours and women 36.2. Among people who usually work full time, the gap narrows to 42.7 versus 40.7.
- By race and ethnicity: averages were close: White 38.2, Black 38.8, Asian 38.5 and Hispanic or Latino 37.8 hours.
- By occupation: natural resources, construction and maintenance occupations averaged 40.3 hours; management and professional 39.6; production and transportation 39.3; sales and office 36.9; service occupations 34.5.
- Among usual full-timers, every occupation group averaged between 41.2 (service) and 42.4 hours (production and transportation). Differences in the overall averages come mostly from how much part-time work each group has.
What this means for employers: If you employ teenagers or students, expect short, variable weeks and plan around school schedules. Our guide to how many hours is part time covers how employers define it for benefits and eligibility.
Hours worked per day
The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) asks people to record a full day, so it measures daily hours. Figures are 2025 annual averages from ATUS Table 4, released June 25, 2026.
- On days they worked, all employed people averaged 7.66 hours. Full-time workers averaged 8.07 hours and part-time workers 5.36 hours.
- Full-time workers averaged 8.45 hours on weekdays they worked and 5.49 hours on weekend days or holidays they worked.
- 80.5% of employed people worked on an average weekday, compared with 30.3% on an average weekend day or holiday.
- Employed men averaged 7.88 hours on days worked and women 7.41 hours.
- People with a bachelor's degree or higher averaged 7.39 hours on days worked, fewer than high school graduates with no college (7.97), but were more likely to work on a given day (71.9% versus 63.2%).
- According to the ATUS release, 35% of employed people did some or all of their work at home on days they worked, and 70% did some or all at their workplace. See our remote work statistics.
What this means for employers: The 8-hour day still holds for full-timers, but nearly a third of workers work on an average weekend day or holiday. If your business runs weekends, those shifts are shorter on average and need the same accurate records as weekday ones.
How the average workweek has changed
BLS has tracked weekly hours for production and nonsupervisory employees since 1964, the longest consistent private-sector series. The chart shows January of each year from BLS series CES0500000007, seasonally adjusted.
- The hourly workforce's average week fell 4.6 hours from January 1964 to January 2025 (Workzenly calculation). Most of the drop came before 1990: the average was already down to 34.5 by January 1990.
- The all-employee average (series CES0500000002) reached 35.0 hours in January 2021, up from 34.2 in April 2020.
- That average was 34.4 hours in October 2019 and is 34.4 again in October 2026 (preliminary). In between it fell to 34.2 in October 2024 and October 2025.
- In the household survey, everyone at work averaged 39.0 hours in 2019 and 38.3 in 2025; usual full-timers averaged 42.5 and 41.9. BLS cautions that 2025 data are not strictly comparable with earlier years.
What this means for employers: Average work week hours move slowly, so a jump of a few tenths of an hour across your team is a real signal: more demand, a staffing gap or hours creeping past schedule. Track it monthly.
US hours compared with other countries
The OECD publishes average annual hours actually worked per worker, covering full-time and part-time workers. These are 2025 figures for total employment from the OECD dataset on average annual hours actually worked, retrieved November 13, 2026.
- US workers averaged 1,800 hours in 2025, about 64 hours more than the OECD average of 1,736 (Workzenly calculation), or roughly 1.6 extra 40-hour weeks.
- The US figure was 1,880 hours in 2000, so it fell by about 80 hours over 25 years (Workzenly calculation from OECD data).
- Workzenly calculation: 1,800 hours a year is about 34.6 hours a week averaged over 52 weeks, close to the BLS payroll average.
- The OECD warns that these data "are intended for comparisons of trends over time; they are unsuitable for comparisons of the level of average annual hours of work for a given year, because of differences in their sources." Treat country rankings as approximate.
What this means for employers: US workers log more hours per year than workers in most of the European countries shown, and annual hours reflect time off as well as weekly schedules. Track paid time off as carefully as hours worked so you can see both sides of your own team's year.
About this data
This page draws on four sources. BLS Current Employment Statistics hours are published monthly in the Employment Situation; the latest two months are preliminary and are revised. BLS Current Population Survey annual tables are published each January; the 2025 averages cover 11 months and exclude October 2025. The BLS American Time Use Survey is released once a year, in June. The OECD hours dataset is updated annually.
The measures differ. CES reports hours paid per job, from employer payrolls, for private nonfarm employees. CPS reports hours actually worked per person, across all jobs, from a household survey that includes the self-employed. ATUS reports hours on a single diary day. Where we compute shares, differences or annual totals, the text says "Workzenly calculation." We review this page when new releases come out. Journalists, students and bloggers are welcome to cite it with a link to this page.
More workforce statistics: Overtime statistics · Part-time employment statistics · Four-day work week statistics · Labor productivity statistics.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation, October 2026, released November 6, 2026. bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table B-2, Average weekly hours and overtime of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted, October 2026. bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t18.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table B-7, Average weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted, October 2026. bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t23.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics series CES0500000002, average weekly hours of all employees, total private, 2016 to 2026. data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000002
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics series CES0500000007, average weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory employees, total private, 1964 to 2026. data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000007
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 19, People at work by sex and hours of work, 2025 annual averages. bls.gov/cps/cpsaat19.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 19, 2019 annual averages. bls.gov/cps/aa2019/cpsaat19.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 22, People at work in nonagricultural industries by age, sex, race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 2025 annual averages. bls.gov/cps/cpsaat22.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 23, People at work by occupation, sex and usual full- or part-time status, 2025 annual averages. bls.gov/cps/cpsaat23.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, 2025 results, released June 25, 2026. bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, Table 4, Employed persons working and time spent working on days worked, 2025 annual averages. bls.gov/news.release/atus.t04.htm
- OECD, Average annual hours actually worked per worker (dataflow DSD_HW@DF_AVG_ANN_HRS_WKD), 2000 to 2025, retrieved November 13, 2026 through the OECD data API. sdmx.oecd.org
Frequently asked questions
What are the average work week hours in the US?
Employees on private nonfarm payrolls averaged 34.4 hours a week in October 2026 (preliminary, seasonally adjusted), according to the BLS Employment Situation release of November 6, 2026. That average includes part-time staff. People who usually work full time averaged 41.9 hours in 2025, according to the Current Population Survey.
How many hours does a full-time employee work per week on average?
People who usually work full time averaged 41.9 hours a week in 2025, according to BLS Current Population Survey annual averages. Men who usually work full time averaged 42.8 hours and women 40.7 hours. BLS notes the 2025 averages cover 11 months and exclude October 2025.
Which industry has the longest average workweek?
Mining and logging had the longest average workweek in October 2026, at 45.8 hours for all employees, followed by utilities at 43.1 hours and manufacturing at 40.5 hours. Leisure and hospitality had the shortest at 25.5 hours, according to BLS Employment Situation Table B-2 (preliminary, seasonally adjusted).
How many hours a day do Americans work?
On days they worked in 2025, full-time employed people worked an average of 8.07 hours and part-time workers 5.36 hours, according to the BLS American Time Use Survey released June 25, 2026. Full-time workers averaged 8.45 hours on weekdays and 5.49 hours on weekend days they worked.
Do Americans work more hours than people in other countries?
OECD data put US annual hours actually worked at 1,800 per worker in 2025, above the OECD average of 1,736 and well above Germany at 1,332. Mexico was higher at 2,205. The OECD says these figures suit trend comparisons, not exact level comparisons between countries.
Is the average workweek getting shorter?
Over decades, yes. Production and nonsupervisory employees averaged 38.2 hours a week in January 1964 and 33.6 hours in January 2025, according to BLS series CES0500000007. Recent years are flatter: the all-employee average was 34.4 hours in October 2019 and again in October 2026.