Employees in Telangana among most hard working in India, finds study

On average, an employee from both the private and government sectors in Telangana State works for 43.26 hours per week, assuming that it is a 6-day working week

Hyderabad: Do you know that employees in Telangana are among the country’s top individuals who clock the most work hours per day? Government employees in Telangana put in more hours than their counterparts in other Indian States.

While suggestions made by industry leaders that Indians must work 70 hours a week continue to draw attention and criticism from various quarters, on average, an employee from Telangana works for 433 minutes (7.21 hours) per day, in contrast to the all-India average of 422 minutes.

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On average, an employee from both the private and government sectors in Telangana State works for 43.26 hours per week, assuming that it is a 6-day working week. Interestingly, among South Indian States, employees in Telangana are in second place, after their counterparts in Tamil Nadu, who on average work for 436 minutes (7.26 hours) per day.

A study titled ‘Time Spent on Employment-Related Activities in India: A Note’, prepared by Dr Shammika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister, said, “The average amount of time spent on paid economic activities or ‘working’ per day in India is 422 minutes. For an average working week of 6 days, this translates into 42.2 hours per week. The most interesting aspect of this analysis is the significant variations across States.”

“While Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli exceed 600 minutes of work per day (more than 10 hours), Goa and most Northeastern states report less than 360 minutes per day (less than 6 hours per day),” the report said.

The paper analysed ‘Time Use Survey Data’ (2019) conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) of the Government of India, a rich dataset of 518,744 individuals across 1,38,799 households from across the country.

“The data is from six years back, which is a minor limitation. However, it is able to capture the broad characteristics of “work culture” in terms of time spent on economic activities,” the study said.

In the government sector, employees from Telangana State are on top with 494 minutes, which works out to 8.23 hours per day or 49.38 hours per week (considering a 6-day work week), closely followed by employees in Rajasthan, who on average work for 466 minutes, i.e. 7.76 hours per day.

Those interested in knowing more about the study can visit: www.eacpm.gov.in.