Americans Are Working Less Than They Were Before the Pandemic
- Drop in working hours leads to contraction in labor supply
- Shortfall keeps pressure up on wages, spurring inflation worry
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Americans are spending less time working than they did before the pandemic. That’s good for many of them, but it’s not necessarily great for the inflation-fighting Federal Reserve.
The average US workweek has dropped by more than a half hour over the last three years, according to new research by former Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Katharine Abraham and her University of Maryland colleague Lea Rendell. That’s enabled some Americans to emulate their European counterparts and spend more time on leisure and other activities.