Americans work far less than they used to—average annual hours fell from about 3,000 a year 120 years ago to about 1,900 today, with the weekend, vacations, later workforce entry, and earlier retirement meaning we work a much smaller fraction of our healthy lives—so the 'overworked society' narrative is a myth and we have handled increased leisure well.

factualpending

Speaker

David Autor

Evidence Quote

people worked on average in the United States about 3,000 hours a year. Uh now we work on average about 1,900 hours of the year

Source

A Threat Bigger than China | MIT Economist David AutorReid Hoffman
Created: 6/18/2026, 2:32:24 PM

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