Overwork Paralleling the rise in underemployment has been an increase in the average number of hours worked by the full-time employed. Among women working full-time, the increase over the same period has been from 37.9 to 39.5. Workers on very long hours made up just 21 per cent of all full-timers in 1980. By 1999, that proportion had risen to 33 per cent. The phenomenon of overwork is not evenly distributed across the population.
Males are far more likely to be working very long hours than females.
Only 20 per cent of female full-timers are working very long hours. Hours worked also vary by occupation, with managers and professionals overwhelmingly working the longest hours. While some blue collar workers also work very long hours, a distinguishing feature of the long hours worked by managers and professionals is that much of it is as unpaid overtime. The longer working hours now being worked by Australians is not just a short-term phenomenon. It began at the end of the 1982-83 recession and has continued through various phases of the economic cycle to today.