Shorter work week is “economically unwise”

There current labour shortage will become significantly worse if we shorten the work week.

So writes Fróði Magnussen, the chairman of the economic council, in a new report (in Faroese only).

“Shortening the work week from 40 hours to 37 will require more funding and more workers, and this is already a problem in our economy,” he writes.

“The current labour shortage is expected to get worse in the coming years. Shortening the work week will put even more pressure on our labour market, and that is an economically unwise thing to do.”

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Rather than shortening the work week, Magnussen recommends easing the pressure on the national economy.

“The proposed 37-hour work week will lead to significant increases in wage expenditures, in the public and private sectors alike, and this will have a negative effect on our economic sustainability,” he writes.

“The government would need to find ways of financing this new initiative because it will not be cheap, and we would need to find alternative solutions to the growing labour shortage.”

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.