Most Australians want a four-day workweek

Most employees in Australia want a four-day workweek, and most employers are on board with the arrangement, revealed a study by jobs platform Indeed.

Over half of Australians (61%) believe that a four-day workweek would be “increasingly important” to them in the next two years, found the survey, which received responses from 2,003 Australian workers and jobseekers. 

Some 70% of employers said they were “fairly comfortable” with offering a four-day workweek to employees over the next two years. The study also found that the number of job ads highlighting a four-day work week rose in recent years, but still remained relatively rare. 

“Over the past three years, the share of postings mentioning a four-day workweek has more than doubled [up by 107%]”, said Indeed senior economist Callam Pickering, according to Yahoo Finance.

“In October, 0.8% of job postings on Indeed mention ‘4-day workweek’ or some other variation of that term,” he added. “That’s up from 0.6 per cent in October last year, 0.5 per cent in October 2020 and 0.4 per cent in October 2019.”

READ: Unilever trials four-day workweek in Australian office  

A four-day workweek could help workers be more mindful at work because they had more time set aside for personal things, suggested Indeed organisational psychologist Amanda Gordon.