Are the French More Productive Than Us?

When it comes to our brethren in Europe, we tend to have a love-hate relationship with the French. I'm a Francophile myself, having lived in Paris once upon a time, but I have plenty of friends who jumped on the Freedom Fries train and consider the French to be rude, snobby, and generally insufferable.

(Of course, I have French friends who consider Americans crude, slobby, and generally unutterable, so I guess we're even.)

So I thought it was funny to see some recent statistics that indicated that the French may be both lazier than Americans -- and simultaneously more productive.

A survey from UBS has shown that the French continue to work the least amount of hours per year in the world. The average in surveyed cities was about 1,900 hours per year, but workers in Paris and Lyon are logging only about 1,600. (Most hours worked? Cairo, at 2,373 per year.)

However, point out Vincent Fernando and John Carney of The Business Insider, the real message here isn't about laziness -- it's that the French are likely some of the most productive people in the world.

Think about it. Nationmaster ranks France as #18 in terms of GDP per capita, at $36,500 per person, yet France works much less than most developed nations. They achieve their high standard of living while working 16% less hours than the average world citizen...Plus, if you visit France you'll also realize that their actual standard of living is probably much higher than GDP numbers would indicate.
Thus, if one were to divide France's GDP per capita by actual hours worked, you'd probably find that the French are achieving some of the highest returns on work-hours invested. Labor Alpha, if you will.

In fact, crunch the numbers and you'll find that the French Labor Alpha is about $0.50 GDP/capita/hour over the U.S.

It may sound small at first, but add that up across millions of people, and a few decades. Now you've built a lesson for the rest of the world to learn.

The message? Work smarter, not harder. And maybe revisit your assumptions about the French work ethic.

(image by mabel flores via Flickr, CC 2.0)