Here’s How Long Millennials Are Working Around the World

Millennials have been given a pretty bad rap. They’re constantly criticized for being undeserving and unwilling to work for the things they want. But for all the bad stereotypes, millennials are doing some pretty amazing things, from creating businesses and new technologies, to successfully navigating a rapidly-changing workforce in the midst of a major recession.

However, it takes a lot of work managing start-ups and trying to make the world a better place.

A new study from Manpower Group found that millennials are actually some of the hardest working people out there. They surveyed 19,000 millennials in 25 countries to find out how many hours they put in each week. Hint: It’s a lot.

In America, 21 percent of millennials are working two or more paid jobs.

The U.S., Brazil, and Norway tie for millennials working 45 hours a week, while India takes the lead with the hardest working millennials at 52 hours a week. The U.K. and Australia bring up the rear by actually having close to a normal work week with 41 hours.

But if that isn’t enough, millennials were also asked about their retirement prospects.

While 12 percent of U.S. millennials said they expect to work until they die, over a third of Japanese millennials said the same thing.

Sixty-six percent of U.S. millennials said they expect to work past 65 and 32 percent said they expect to work past 70.

But it’s not all bad. Millennials know that the notion of finding a company and staying there your whole career isn’t optimal anymore. In general, millennials value learning new skills to always stay employable, even if that means shifting companies every few years.

The study also reports that American millennials are strangely optimistic about their careers.

The study reads: “Sixty-eight percent (Rank 8 out of 18*) are optimistic about their immediate job prospects. Seventy-six percent (Rank 3 out of 18) are confident that if they lost their main source of income tomorrow they could find equally good or better work within three months.”

How’s that for the “me” generation?