Work Week has Declined to 33 Hours a Week in the U.S.

You might have always wished for a shorter work week, but this is not the way you probably wanted it to occur. The average work week is now 33 hours long. Far from the days when people worked enormous amount of overtime, and were paid for it, the working class American has had to take many cuts. Cuts in their salary, their hours per week and their benefits. After employment highs of just a few years ago, unemployment rates are now at the highest they have been in 26 years. With less people making less money, the economy clearly suffers.

While once the number of people unemployed in the U.S. was close to 4%, after a severe drop in May this is no longer the case. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, and is expected to rise to 10 percent in the near future. Stocks and bonds came crashing down, and during this month of job cuts, morale is low. Additionally, huge companies have also been doing considerable cuts. From General Motors to Kimberly Clark to almost every large auto company, the average Joe blow has found that keeping his job may not be as easy as it once sounded. If the unemployment rates don't rebound soon, the economy has no hopes of a quick rebound in the near future.

Because of all these huge job cuts, companies have come up with ways to keep workers employed, which has led to cutting hours and benefits. The average work week is now only 33 hours long, which forces the average paycheck for a full time worker down to merely $611.49. This is .5 percent lower than the average weekly wage was in February, and the trend does not seem to be stopping any time soon. In additional to lower pay, and a shorter work week, there are less jobs available to be had in general. Companies are cutting and merging positions, doubling workloads while scrimping on paid hours. Fields of auto manufacturing and parts industries are affected in huge proportions. Government agencies have been making huge cuts on their payroll as well. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, California governor, has come up with a plan. Force workers to take a third day without pay every month to conserve the cash.

While there are some reports that the economic recession is slowly beginning to come to a halt, this does little good right now for the unemployed worker. There has been some discussion of an slight rise in the economy at the end of 2009,and an economic expansion of 1.9 percent during the final three months of the year. Consumer spending has slowly risen the first few months of 2009. As more jobs continue to be cut, and more companies seem to be removing positions all together, this news of a gradual building of the economy may fall on deaf ears. For those Americans now working those 33 hour work weeks, all they can do at this point is wait for the economy to eventually catch up and give them back their hours.