According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the ILOSTAT statistical database, Iran ranked 10th among 170 countries in 2024, with an average working week of 46.3 hours. The ranking presents a different picture of the participation of Iranian workers in the labor market. The data shows that weekly working hours in Iran are not only not low, but are also at a high level compared with many countries around the world.
Bhutan topped the list with 54.5 working hours per week. It was followed by Sudan with 50.8 hours, the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 48.7 hours and the United Arab Emirates with 48.7 hours. Jordan ranked next with 47.7 hours, followed by Liberia and Pakistan, both with 47.5 hours. Qatar, with 46.8 hours, and Lebanon, with 46.4 hours, also ranked above Iran, while Iran stood in 10th place with 46.3 hours.
Iran’s gap with Lebanon is only 0.1 hours, equivalent to six minutes per week, and 0.5 hours compared with Qatar. This close margin shows that Iran is at the lower end of the top 10 countries, while remaining only slightly behind some countries ranked above it.
An average of 46.3 working hours per week means that the time allocated to economic activity in Iran is significant. From this perspective, the data challenges the common perception that Iranians work less. However, working hours alone are not a measure of productivity and cannot, by themselves, be used to assess the quality of economic performance or the welfare of the workforce.
Long working hours may, in some cases, result from overtime, holding multiple jobs, livelihood pressures or low income levels. Therefore, an accurate assessment of labour market conditions requires examining this indicator alongside wages, productivity, job security, employment quality and workers’ purchasing power.
At the provincial level, significant differences can also be observed. Among provinces with the highest share of workers working more than 49 hours per week, Alborz ranked first with 54 percent. It was followed by Ardabil with 49.9 percent, Hamadan with 48.8 percent and Tehran with 47.4 percent.
At the opposite end, West Azerbaijan recorded the lowest share of workers working more than 49 hours per week, at 21.1 percent. It was followed by Sistan and Baluchestan with 25.9 percent, Hormozgan with 28.3 percent and Semnan with 28.8 percent. Therefore, the gap between the highest and lowest provincial shares exceeds 32 percentage points, indicating significant differences in employment structures and patterns across provinces.
Comparisons with some regional countries are also notable. Turkey, with 42.8 working hours per week, Uzbekistan with 40.9 hours and Bahrain with 39.5 hours, all have lower average weekly working hours than Iran. As a result, Iran’s figure of 46.3 hours is not only high in global comparisons but is also notable compared with some regional countries.
Ultimately, these figures underscore an important reality: Iranian workers rank among those who spend a significant amount of time engaged in economic activity. Iran ranks 10th among 170 countries with 46.3 working hours per week, and in some provinces, a large share of workers put in more than 49 hours per week.
Therefore, if judgments are to be made about work culture, the level of human effort or productivity in Iran, a distinction must be made between “working more” and “working more productively”. Working-hour data challenges the stereotype of low work effort; however, the more important question is to what extent this volume of work is being converted into income, welfare, production and productivity.
NOURNEWS