Jobs with the longest shifts often involve manual labor, emergency services, or specialized industries like mining and oil/gas, with roles like miners, surgeons, roustabouts, firefighters, and long-haul truckers frequently working extensive hours, sometimes involving 12-hour shifts, 24/7 operations, or demanding "on-call" schedules that can lead to over 60+ hours weekly, especially when overtime or project demands kick in.
A bartender at the “Ons Volkshuis” café in Meerhout, in the Belgian province of Antwerp, broke the world record on Sunday for the longest barkeeping record, spending a total of 120 hours behind the counter serving customers, VRT Nieuws reports.
By occupation, surgeons work the longest hours on average in the U.S. By industry, animal production and aquaculture industry workers clock the longest hours on average in the U.S.
Many awards set “ordinary” daily hours at around 7.6–8 hours, with the possibility of longer shifts (often up to 10 or 12 hours) subject to overtime, breaks and fatigue management rules.
There's no single #1 happiest job universally, but Firefighters consistently rank high for job satisfaction due to their sense of purpose, while Care Workers, Counsellors, Content Creators, and IT roles (Java Devs, Systems Analysts) also appear frequently on "happiest" lists for fulfillment, autonomy, or good pay/balance. Overall, jobs with meaning, helping others, nature connection, strong coworker bonds, or good work-life balance tend to be cited as happiest.
One job sector stood above the rest as the "unhappiest" in America. Results pointed to those working in pharmacies as having the worst Net Happiness Score, with just 13.94 percent of pharmacy workers giving a positive assessment.
Pilot is the world's dream job, with over 1.3 million global annual searches. Travel-related roles take up a large portion of the dream jobs list; alongside Pilot in first, followed by Flight Attendant in fifth and Travel Agent in sixth.
A $75k salary in Australia is decent, above the median income for many age groups and allowing for comfortable living in regional areas, but it can be tight in expensive cities like Sydney or Melbourne, especially for families, with many feeling $100k is needed for stability, though it's a strong starting point for younger professionals. After tax, $75k becomes roughly $58.6k ($4,888/month), meaning lifestyle, location, and financial goals (like saving for a house) heavily influence whether it's considered "good".
In Australia, the maximum number of ordinary hours a casual employee can work is 12 hours in a day or shift. A casual employee must have time off after this and there must be time for meal breaks. This averages about 38 hours over a 4-week roster cycle or a 9.5-hour week. This is relevant for all types of work.
It might not be the healthiest long-term solution to work 80 hours a week. However, it can sometimes be unavoidable. If you are working an 80 hour week, try to do it intermittently or for short periods. The most important thing you need to consider to avoid burnout is to keep a healthy sleep schedule.
The health care field holds many of the most stressful jobs, but social services and construction also include demanding roles.
Yes, you can work 70 hours a week in Australia if the extra hours are "reasonable" and you're fairly compensated (overtime pay or time off in lieu), as the standard is 38 hours, but the law allows for reasonable additional hours beyond that, though consistently working such long hours raises health/safety and "reasonableness" concerns for employers under the Fair Work Act.
For a better work-life balance, think about these 12 flexible...
Average working time weekly may not exceed 48 hours. It may be extended to 60 hours only if the average of 48 hours is not exceeded within the period of 4 months. There is an obligation to take a break every 6 hours. Daily working time may not exceed 10 hours for each period of 24 hours for night workers.
Generally, no, there are no federal laws that limit how many hours you can work in a single day. (Though some state labor laws have maximum hour laws for minors.) The federal law that applies to all employees is the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. This law does not regulate how many hours you can work in a day.
According to the ILO, workers in Bhutan work an average of 54.5 hours per week, making them the hardest working nation globally.
Under Australian laws, employees work up to 38 hours in a week, or 7.6 hours (7 hours, 36 minutes) each day. These are classed as regular hours of work, and time worked outside of these hours can attract overtime, higher rates of pay (“penalties”), or be counted as time off in lieu to be taken later.
The 996 working hour system (Chinese: 996工作制) is a work schedule that derives its name from its requirement that workers clock in from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week, resulting in employees working 12 hours per day and 72 hours per week. It is practiced illegally by some companies in China.
Maximum weekly hours
An employee can work a maximum of 38 hours in a week unless an employer asks them to work reasonable extra hours.
The average Australian full-time worker is now earning more than $2000 a week for the first time in history. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show the average ordinary full-time weekly earnings for adults hit $2011.40 before tax in May.
To be in Australia's top 1% of individual taxpayers, you generally need an annual income of around $375,000 to $390,000, though figures vary slightly by source and year, with higher thresholds for households (around $530,000). For context, the median individual income is much lower (around $55,000), and while top earners often include surgeons and anaesthetists, reaching the top 1% of net worth requires significantly more wealth, often exceeding $7 million.
While $55,000 a year is lower than the national average salary, it may be enough for a single person to support themselves. However, cost of living, financial obligations, personal spending habits, inflation, and other factors can impact how far the money goes.
There's no single #1 happiest job universally, but Firefighters consistently rank high for job satisfaction due to their sense of purpose, while Care Workers, Counsellors, Content Creators, and IT roles (Java Devs, Systems Analysts) also appear frequently on "happiest" lists for fulfillment, autonomy, or good pay/balance. Overall, jobs with meaning, helping others, nature connection, strong coworker bonds, or good work-life balance tend to be cited as happiest.
Gen Z struggles to find jobs due to a mix of economic shifts, AI disrupting entry-level roles, and evolving workplace expectations, facing fewer opportunities for new grads, demands for immediate contribution, and a perceived lack of soft skills despite digital fluency, leading to high underemployment and frustration with a job market that doesn't align with traditional career paths or offers high pressure without adequate support.
17 low-stress jobs (that pay well) without a degree