Despite being the top economy in Africa, South African workers are largely unproductive, producing less per hour than the world average.

This is according to data visualised in the latest Nedbank Pulse, which examines which country’s workers produce the most GDP per hour worked.

Using data from the International Labour Organisation (November 2023), the bank charted the top-ranked countries by GDP per hour worked—or labour productivity—measured in International dollars (Int$).

International dollars are a hypothetical currency used to compare the purchasing power of different countries by adjusting for price differences.

Nedbank found that workers in Luxembourg and Ireland are the most productive in the world, by quite some margin, earning Int$146 and Int$143 per hour, respectively – significantly higher than third place, Norway, at Int$93 per hour.

Looking at the top 25, Luxembourg is nearly three times more productive than Qatar (25th) due to its strong financial services sector.

Nine of the top ten countries are in Europe, with Singapore as the exception.

“Europeans work fewer hours than Americans to achieve similar output levels per capita. Many wealthy European countries have smaller populations and high-value industries, boosting per capita productivity,” Nedbank noted.

The EU’s strong worker protections and generous paid time off may also enhance productivity, it said.

South Africa

South Africa often gets a reputation for having hard workers who work some of the longest hours in the world.

Previous research has gone some way to back this up, showing that South Africans aren’t afraid to work long hours and often go beyond the legislated maximum of 45 hours per week.

However, the ILO’s data shows that South Africans don’t actually work that much longer than much of the world, averaging 42.6 hours per work—not even cracking the top 50 of hardest workers.

Even when measuring ‘excessive’ hours work (49 hours or more per week), only 17% of the working population clocks these numbers—again, not even within the top 50.

Not only is the working population not hard-working, relative to other countries, by this metric, South Africa also emerges as being highly unproductive, producing only Int$21 per hour.

This is below the global average of Inl$26 per hour and about seven times lower than Luxembourg.

The table below outlines the top 15 countries regarding working hours, the percentage working extremely long hours (49 hours+), and the value of their work measured as GDP output per hour- and where South Africa fits in.