Macao employees work an average of 45.6 hours per week, earning the territory second place in terms of the longest work week in East Asia. That’s according to 2025 data from the International Labour Organisation, cited by the data analytics website World Population Review.
Mongolia managed to bag first place in the region with a work week that averages 45.7 hours. In third and fourth place were mainland China and Hong Kong, whose employees worked 44.8 hours and 43.1 hours per week respectively. This was followed by North Korea’s 40.8 hours, Taiwan’s 39.1 hours, South Korea’s 36.8 hours and Japan’s 31 hours.
Overall, Macao’s average work week exceeded the world average, which stood at 38.7 hours.
Females in Macao had a work week that totalled 46 hours, a figure that is slightly higher than their male residents whose working hours averaged 45.4 hours. Both of these totals surpassed the worldwide average for female and male weekly work hours, which were listed as 35.4 and 40.7 hours respectively.
Although working hours in Macao are among the highest in the region, they are still less compared to the countries with the longest average work schedule worldwide. These nations include Bhutan (54.5 hours), Sudan (50.8 hours), Lesotho (50.2 hours), Republic of the Congo (48.7 hours) and the United Arab Emirates (48.4 hours).
[See more: Loving your job in Macao]
By contrast, the countries with the shortest weekly working hours included Yemen (25.9 hours), the Netherlands (26.8 hours), Norway (27.1 hours), Austria (28.4 hours) and Denmark (28.8 hours).
According to the World Population Review, places with shorter workweeks tend to be developed countries that have a high income and a culture that stresses work and life balance. Such areas usually have a higher probability of being included as one of the happiest nations in the world in contrast to countries with extended working hours, which the World Population Review said “tend to have a populace that is less happy and possibly overworked.”
Long working hours have been cited as one of the causes for Macao’s declining birth rates, with one survey from last year revealing that around 68 percent of young residents were unwilling to have children due to their hectic work schedules.
Recent data shows that Macao’s labour force totalled 379,100 in the first quarter of 2025, with the average salary of residents standing at 21,500 patacas.
