Many people living outside the United States long to come to America for the opportunities that a life in the United States provides. One thing I have always found when talking to people who want to come to the United States to work and live is that they think working and living in the United States is easier than in other places in the world. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I thought I would write a post about working in the United States so you can judge for yourself.

First of all, let’s talk about what most people do for work in America. Here is a chart that shows where the largest number of Americans are employed (the top 10 industries/jobs).Looking at this chart it pretty amazing to me because the majority of jobs in American are somehow related to shopping and purchasing goods and food. These jobs include: retail sales person, cashiers, food preparation and serving, waiters and waitresses, and customer service representatives. American sure do like to spend the money they earn!

I also found an interesting article about work in the United States which claims that America is the most overworked developed nation in the world. The reason they claim this is because Americans often work long days and are given relatively little vacation time compared to other developed countries. The 40-hour work week is the gold standard for work for most people in the developed world, but one study has found that 85% of men and 66% of women in America work more than the normal 40-hour work week. Some are working much more. Americans are also given an average of 10 paid vacation days a year. There is no federal law requiring paid sick days in the United States so some people end up using some of their vacation days as sick leave too.

Now, I won’t go so far as to say America is a bad place to work. That certainly isn’t true. There are many rules and regulations that generally make America a safe place to work for people working in factories, on farms, and in offices.  Most work places are also generally comfortable (of course this depends on what a person does for their work) clean and nice places to work. What I think is important to note is that working in the United States is not exactly what it looks like in the movies.  I hope you noticed that doctors, lawyers, and teachers don’t make it anywhere on the 10 ten most common jobs. None of the most common professions in the United States are very high paying professions either.  Americans generally work harder and longer hours than the movies portray.  But, I guess like everywhere else in the world we have to take the good with the bad and be happy for what we have.

If you would like to read more about work life in America, check out this article: The U.S. is the Most Overworked Developed Nation in the World – When do we Draw the Line? http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/ and see how your work life compares.