The Average Work Week Keeps Getting Shorter [AUDIO]

New information from the Fed shows we are working less than our parents did in terms a hours per week.

The Labor Department says the average work week has gone from 38 hours in 1964 to 34 hours this year. Economic Analyst Patrick O'Keefe, of Cohn-Reznick in Roseland, says with more telecommuting at home and more part-time jobs than ever, "we continue to redefine work."

Also, people are staying in school longer and are retiring earlier. Men in their 50s, for example, have been retiring or entering semi-retirement earlier and in greater numbers than those in previous generations, according to John Robinson, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, and are partly responsible for driving down overall work hours per week.

It all averages down to a shorter numbers of hours worked per week, which leaves us with more leisure time, says O'Keefe.

"There is a greater number of hours available to us today, that is not occupied by our commitment to an employer."

And get this, the average work week for a manufacturing worker in the 1860's was more than 60 hours.