“There’s less and less work in the U.S.” Debunking political scientist Yelfimov’s arguments

Appearing as an expert on the First National Channel of Belarusian Radio, political scientist Vadim Yelfimov said Donald Trump broke his promise to “drain the Washington swamp” and that his economic policies cost jobs.

“Last week, the statistics came in: the U.S. workweek shrank by one day. In other words, there is less and less work in the United States. And those who do have jobs — what they call blue-collar working people — were the core, the electoral base of Donald Trump,” he said on the July 16, 2025, broadcast of “Aktualny Mikrofon.”

The WTF team fact-checked the claim.

As of June 2025, the average U.S. workweek was about 34 hours, 12 minutes. A year earlier, it was six minutes longer. It was the same in 2006.

Over the past decade, the length of the workweek has fluctuated by no more than 40 minutes either way. The biggest drop came during the 2009 recession, when the workweek fell to 33 hours, 54 minutes. The peak came in 2021 at 34 hours, 48 minutes.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is already considering a legislated shorter workweek.

In 2024, under Joe Biden, a group of senators proposed cutting the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours with no loss in pay. The argument is that new technologies have increased U.S. workers’ productivity, and the 40-hour standard workweek no longer reflects reality. But the bill never passed.