Haven average annual hours worked been declining over the last three decades?
• In the course of our research we investigated all available measures of working patterns. Average annual working hours were found to be misleading because they provide no understanding of the underlying distribution of working hours. For example, we know that this indicator masks the mix of full- and part-time workers, which is particularly significant in Australia given our high proportion of casual workers. • Average annual hours have indeed fallen from 1,904 in 1979 to 1,811 in 2005. However, Appendix Exhibit 16 shows that there has been a divergence away from the mean for Australian workers. The proportion of those working a ‘standard’ 35-44 hours has shrunk considerably, while the proportions working long or part-time (casual) have grown significantly. This bifurcation means that looking at a simple average figure masks important detail. An analogy would be to analyse the weather over two weeks, where the first week was marked by continuous 40C days and the second week by freezi
