Productivity levels within a company are on factor used to assess the performance of the business, at least from the management perspective. Related productivity metrics enable an assessment to be conducted to determine if the business expectations are being maintained and whether the growth results are positive. But what of the workers?
Can productivity be translated into an assessment of work-rate? Or is it simply a measure of the number of hours workers are required to put in? The company Business Name Generator has analyzed worldwide data on different business metrics, such as the average hours worked in each state to find out the locations with the most overall productivity. This included International Labour Organisation data on worker work time levels. What do these results reveal?
Whether the output translates to ‘hardest working’ or ‘most exploited’ will depend on individual political perspectives. This cannot be resolved here, but the data remains of interest should these prepositions be taken further.
What is of interest is that the findings infer that the simple equation of more hours = more productivity. Is this a true model of business? The data runs counter to other studies that maintain productivity falls sharply after 50 hours per week. All that can be concluded at this juncture is that further inquiries are needed into this ratio.
The balance has been considered by the analysts at both state and national level. Here Utah comes out at the top of the assessment, for good or for ill. What is indisputable is that workers are required to toil away for the longest. After Utah, second placed California has the highest year-on-year percentage increase in business applications at 14.2 percent in the last year. Washington state leads the US in productivity rates, with a gross value-added outcome of 130.
The table below shows the top five scoring states in the US:
| Rank | State | Average working paid hours | Productivity levels | Unemployment rates (%) | % change of business applications (2022-23) | Business survival rate (%) | Outcome score (/10) |
| 1 | Utah | 126.7 | 117 | 2.4 | 2.6% | 29% | 7.3 |
| 2 | California | 113.2 | 127 | 4.2 | 14.2% | 28% | 7.0 |
| 3 | Washington | 115.2 | 130 | 4.6 | 11.7% | 26% | 6.8 |
| 4 | Colorado | 114.6 | 119 | 2.8 | 4.0% | 27% | 6.6 |
| 5 | Florida | 125.9 | 108 | 2.6 | -0.9% | 30% | 6.5 |
At the other end of the scale, Alaska ranks as the state with the lowest score based on workers operating to the fewest working hours of all states.
When considered at the national level, Malta comes top, where over 90 percent of workers work excessively long-hours at more than 49 hours per week. In addition, workers in UAE do the longest paid hours per week worldwide – an average of 52.6 hours per week.
With the national level data:
| Index | Country | Average hours worked per week | Percentage of workers working 49 or more hours per week | Outcome score (/10) |
| 1 | Malta | 42.8 | 91.1 | 8.8 |
| 2 | Bhutan | 50.7 | 53.9 | 7.9 |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | 52.6 | 46.5 | 7.8 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 46.9 | 50.5 | 7.3 |
| 5 | Congo | 48.6 | 45.6 | 7.2 |
| 6 | Mauritania | 47.5 | 47.0 | 7.2 |
| 7 | Lesotho | 49.8 | 36.0 | 6.9 |
| 8 | Maldives | 46.2 | 44.0 | 6.9 |
| 9 | Pakistan | 46.7 | 41.7 | 6.8 |
| 10 | Lebanon | 46.6 | 39.4 | 6.7 |
Nestled in the Himalayas, Bhutan is placed second hardest working residents with the average hours worked per week per person is at 50. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) comes third for, having the highest average working hours per week at nearly 53.
These figures demonstrate that those campaigning for a better outcome for workers in terms of working hours have some way to go in certain parts of the world. Ultimately excessive hours leads to a loss of productivity and a decline in the quality of work.
