The given line chart illustrates the number of people with varying average working hours, while the table depicts the average number of paid holidays by year.
Overall, there were an upward trend in the figure of people choosing to work short hours, while the number of people working overtime decreased. Moreover, the average number of paid holidays increased steadily in the period shown.
Looking first at the line chart, standing at the second place with 10 million (M) people in 1998, the figure of workers have 16-31 working hours a week rose significantly, before reached a peak at 12 M in 2004. Despite having a higher starting point than 16-31 hours group (10.5 M in 1998), the number of worked 32-45 hours per week witnessed a slight decline by nearly 0.5 M in the next two years, and in this time, it was surpassed by the number of people working 16-31 hours a week. From 2000 to 2004, the figure of this group increased slightly and ended with about 11.2 M in 2004.In addition, working over 45 hours a week always attracted the fewest employees. Recording 9.5 M in 1998, the number of people worked over 45 hours per week fluctuated around 9.3 M, before decreased dramatically to 9 M in 2004.
Examining the number of average number of paid holidays by year, workers had at least 25 days in all the surveyed years and this number changed significantly over the years. In 1998, there were only 25 paid holidays;however, in the next years, it increase by 2 days per years (except 2001-2002 and 2003-2004, which were stability) until reached a peak at 32 days in 2004.