Greeks are the hardest workers in Europe

If you look at the average annual hours worked by each worker, the Greeks seem very hard-working.

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average Greek worker toils away for 2,017 hours per year which is more than any other European country.

On the other hand, the average German worker - normally thought of as the very epitome of industriousness - only manages 1,408 hours a year. Germany is 33rd out of 34 on the OECD list (or 24th out of 25 looking at the European countries alone).

urope's top 10 and bottom 10
	Most hours worked	Most productive	Least hours worked	Least productive
1	Greece	Luxembourg	Netherlands	Poland
2	Hungary	Norway	Germany	Hungary
3	Poland	Ireland	Norway	Turkey
4	Estonia	Belgium	France	Estonia
5	Turkey	Netherlands	Denmark	Czech Rep
6	Czech Rep	France	Ireland	Portugal
7	Italy	Germany	Belgium	Slovakia
8	Slovakia	Denmark	Austria	Greece
9	Portugal	Sweden	Luxembourg	Slovenia
10	Iceland	Austria	Sweden	Iceland
The UK ranks 14th both in terms of hours worked and in terms of productivity
Source: OECD This is because the Germans take more holiday, sickness leave and maternity leave - on average four weeks more than the Greeks. So far, we have been focusing on those in employment, but only 60% of Greece's working age population have jobs compared to 72% in Germany.