Over half (52%) of job hunters regularly take work home, according to a new survey by Hays, the leading recruiting experts. This goes some way to explain why the UK consistently tops the list of the longest working hours in Europe, with an average of 42.7 hours worked each week compared with 41.6 across the EU1.

Mark Sheldon, Regional Managing Director at Hays says: "While a just under a third of people maintain a good level of work life balance and don't regularly take work home with them, over half of people confessed to taking work home with them more than once a week. In a competitive and challenging jobs market workers may feel they have to work longer hours to show their value and commitment. Hard work should always be applauded but working smart and maintaining your wellbeing should go hand in hand and should be top of everybody's New Year's resolution list."
For more information and job opportunities visit www.hays.co.uk

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About the survey
Survey results from an online poll of 568 visitors to hays.co.uk, collected in December 2012.
1 - Data from the Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings - Dec 2011

About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2012 the Group employed 7,800 staff operating from 245 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2012:
- the Group reported net fees of £734 million and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £128 million;
- the Group placed around 55,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 182,000 people into temporary assignments;
- 33% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 36% in Continental Europe & RoW (CERoW) and 31% in the United Kingdom & Ireland;
- the temporary placement business represented 56% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 44% of net fees;
- Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA


For further press information please contact:
Deepa Bose
Hays
T. 020 7200 3760
E. deepa.bose@hays.com

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