How the Netherlands (accidentally) Moved to a 4 Day Week

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Recently published data on average working hours across Europe shows that the Netherlands has somehow accidentally moved to a 4 day week. In this video, we’re taking a look at how this came to be and why it looks like it’s working pretty well.

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0:00 Intro
0:55 The (accidental) Rise of Part-Time Jobs
4:25 How Legislation Accelerated the Trend
6:30 Does it Work?

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Visser, J. & Hemerijck, A. 1997. “The Dutch Miracle”

Visser, J. 2000. “The first part-time economy in the world: does it work?”
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/7017667.pdf

Eurostat data on working hours
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250514-1

FT Article on Dutch moving to 4 day week
https://www.ft.com/content/7b61e52c-93fc-4634-b9ad-fdacac5d6538

Female labour participation rate across the OECD
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.NE.ZS?end=2023&locations=NL-OE-GB&start=1970

Part-time working rates across the OECD
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.PART.ZS?end=2023&locations=NL-EU-OE&most_recent_value_desc=true&start=1976&view=chart

Legislation explainers
https://www.kvk.nl/en/managing-and-growing/flexible-working-act-in-practice/

Dutch gas production over time
https://edz.bib.uni-mannheim.de/www-edz/pdf/ef/04/ef0441en.pdf
https://geoexpro.com/the-ups-and-downs-of-dutch-offshore-gas-production/

Dutch kids being the world’s happiest
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/29/health/dutch-kids-happiest-essay-wellness

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