Aussies no longer boozers? Oh dear!

[Coss]

May 3, 9:11 am ET

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Forget the image of the laid-back Aussie lifestyle, Australians now work more hours than Americans or Japanese and rank as the hardest-working people in the developed world, according to a new book.

 

The reputation of heavy drinking Australians is also debunked by figures showing alcohol consumption has dropped dramatically since 1980 and the country now guzzles below average amounts of wine and beer.

 

"Australians are now the hardest workers in the developed world. Hard to believe, but true," Ross Gittins, co-author of the book "How Australia Compares," wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper Saturday.

 

Australia was measured up by the authors against 18 developed countries including the United States, Japan, Britain, Ireland, Canada and 11 European countries.

 

Australians now spend on average 1,855 hours in the workplace every year, just topping Americans who work on average 1,835 hours a year and beating Japanese workers' 1,821 hours.

 

Gittins said the "doubtful honor" of being the hardest working developed nation was partly because of the fact working hours have dropped substantially in most of the countries compared in the survey, but only slipped marginally in Australia, which also has a high percentage of part-time workers.

 

Laying to rest the popular image of the beer-swilling macho Aussie bloke, the book said Australians consume more "alco-pops" -- sweet, fizzy bottled drinks that contain alcohol -- than any other country in the survey. But they only rank as the seventh-biggest beer drinkers and eighth-biggest wine quaffers.

 

Compiling a list of facts and figures, the book notes Australia has notched up one of the strongest levels of economic growth, but donates the fourth-lowest level of official foreign aid per person at $54 a year, and has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita.

 

"So, how does Australia compare? The bad news is that, in various respects, we're not the hotshots we imagine ourselves to be. The good news, however, is that in other respects we're not as hopeless as we sometimes assume," the newspaper said.

 

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Cheers

 

Coss

[Torneyboy]

Hi

 

A bit of a surprise...thought we were still up near the top of beer drinking nations.

 

I agree we have many more working part time and job/share as well.

 

People that are self employed work many hours more than the average .

The old 9 to 5 went out the window years ago,and flexi hours are the norm.

 

Better fast track Fiery Jack to gain PR status in oz asap

 

I wonder who they surveyed...the booze wholesalers/pubs?

 

Didn't ask me...maybe this was while i was in BKk

[Guest lazyphil]

Harold Bishop and Lou Carpenter seem to do very little work and live in very nice houses in Ramsey Street. Is this a typical Australian situation?..I think this census is all lies myself!

[gobbledonk]

Cmon TB - you see enough of the Cafe Latte set in Sydney to know that its all 'Chards this' and 'Bollinger that' with the younger crowd. You might see the odd Crown Lager being clutched tightly by a twenty-something, but beer isnt the tipple of choice for those who move in the 'right' circles. Which leaves more for the rest of us.

 

Personally, I'll drink almost any beer as long as it isnt XXXX - yeecch

[Torneyboy]

Hi

 

sad but true

 

Too many gay guys ::

[Guest]

Every year we see the gay mardi gra on the news so the world at large has taken to assume that if this large concentration of homosexuals in sydney is extrapolated nation wide then it would appear that the vast majority of australian males are shirt lifting, mincing skirts who sit down to pee when they are not taking it up the arse with a size 12 monster cock vibrator. Now we hear that you lot are a bunch of chardonay sippers? Was crocodile dundee indeed a bum rapist???

[Torneyboy]

Untrue :beer: :beer: :beer: