The average yearly working hours among South Korean workers fell by nearly two hundred hours over the past decade, but still remain much longer than the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) nations.

According to data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on Sunday, the average accumulated working hours of a worker at a company with at least one employee came to 156-point-two hours per month in 2023, two-point-five hours shorter than 2022.

The monthly average in 2023 translates into a total of one thousand-874 working hours per year, the first time its dropped to the 18-hundred-hour range.

With the 52-hour work week system being implemented in 2018, the country has seen a steady decline, as the monthly average working hour in 2013 came out to 172-point-six hours, which is equivalent to two thousand-71-point-two hours per year.

Still, the 2022 annual average for South Korean workers remains 155 hours longer than the OECD average, with only Colombia, Costa Rica and Chile having a higher annual average.