What are the top 5 jobs with the longest weekly hours?

In contrast to when we looked at the top 5 jobs with the shortest average weekly hours, we thought we’d repeat the list, but this time, with the UKs most hourly-intensive jobs!

Hopefully your job won’t fall into the top 5, but if it does, I hope you get the satisfaction out of it that makes it all worthwhile!

Here we go!

1. Air Traffic Controllers (47 hours) – Well, that’s concerning… Before writing this blog, I would have expected ATCs to work around 35-40 hours per week for fears of compromising their decision making. Looks like I’ll be taking a boat for my next family holiday.
2. Pub Landlords (56 hours) – Well, I guess there are worse places to spend the majority of your life.. Joking aside, this is a diminishing sector, and god forbid we continue to lose UK pubs at the rate we have been. Must be a stressful job! Stress and working around that much alcohol at the same time would make it a poor match for me!
3. Healthcare Practice Managers (63 hours) – Sadly, this was something I expected. With the sky-rocketing demand for all things healthcare, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. Fortunately, this is for practice managers and owners, so they’ll be earning a fair chunk too. If these were average nurse hours across the UK, I’d be furious (although I suspect it isn’t too far off).
4. Business Owners / CEOs (65 hours) – Strictly speaking this statistic was divided up into a multitude of categories and by sector, so to keep it simple I’ve lumped them all together. It’s no surprise that you’re working north of 60 hours each week if you own a business, as you could be rewarded handsomely. Speaking from personal experience, its long hours and high stress, but very rewarding when working with the right people.
5. Shopkeepers (74 hours) – Oof, 74 hours! Now we appreciate the work that goes into keeping a shop open, as opposed to massive multinational chains taking over! 74 hours a week converts to nearly 11 hours a day, 7 days a week. God forbid they have a day off, then its an average of 12.5 hours per day. I suspect there are keen shop owners out there who regularly do 15-hour days 7 days a week too!

*Taken from the UK Government Statista data from 2019/20 (pre pandemic)