Tradesmen, not bankers, put in the longest hours

Britain’s army of tradesmen is working longer than famously office-tied bankers as holidays are sacrificed and weekends ignored in a bid to squeeze more jobs in.

The average tradesman works between 41 and 50 hours a week, more than bankers, who are at their desk for an average 40.9 hours; doctors, on 38.4 hours; barristers and judges, 36 hours; and accountants, 35.6 hours. A fifth of tradesmen work more than 50 hours a week, compared with the UK average of 36.4 hours.

In addition to a long working week, tradesmen are ignoring the annual statutory holiday entitlement of 28 days, including bank holidays, with one in six taking fewer than 10 days’ leave each year. Just one per cent take more than an hour for lunch, and three quarters skip it altogether.

But perhaps they enjoy it: the research, from Screwfix, also found that tradesmen never truly ‘clock off’, with a third spending their leisure time doing DIY.