In 2022, the UK ran the world’s largest four-day workweek trial, with overwhelmingly positive results.
Following on from this success, StandOut CV analysed 46,079 job adverts for more than 60 common job types that could be done in a four-day workweek. They found out how common four-day week opportunities in the UK are, as well as the best cities and industries to find four-day week jobs.
Key findings:
- Only 1.61% of jobs advertise four-day workweeks in the UK.
- London has the highest percentage of four-day roles (2.7%) whilst Cardiff has the smallest percentage of jobs labelled four-day week (0.4%).
- Outside of London (2.7%), Nottingham (1.99%) and Sheffield (1.97%) were the two best cities to find four-day workweek jobs.
- The jobs most likely to offer four-day working weeks are quality inspectors (5.17%), security officers (4.92%), and HR assistants (2.5%).
- The average salary for an advertised four-day workweek role is £37,142 (6% above the average UK salary of £34,963).
What are four-day workweek capable jobs?
For this analysis, StandOut CV compiled a list of more than 60 jobs that could be done in four-day weeks. Jobs like a paramedic or a teacher aren’t going to be able to squeeze five days’ worth of work into four no matter how hard they try.
To make sure they weren’t analysing jobs like this, they used four-day workweek job boards to get a list of more than 60 job types that could feasibly be done in four days. This would typically be more office-based jobs and those that don’t require customer interactions five days a week, but as our research found, it’s not exclusive to a desk job.
How many four-day week opportunities are there in the UK?
Overall, this research found that four-day workweek jobs are rare and job hunters should snap them up when they can get them. Only 1.61% of four-day workweek capable jobs offered this working pattern. Despite the largest trial in the world being in the UK, it seems it’s going to take some time for it to catch on.
Just under half of these jobs (46.43%) embraced remote working, three in ten (32.14%) were hybrid and two in ten (21.43%) were on-site (typically in an office).
One of the major benefits of an official ‘four-day workweek’ compared to a part-time role is being paid a 100% salary for 80% of the time. The average salary for a four-day workweek was £37,142 – 6.2% above the national average of £34,963.
The best cities for four-day workweek jobs
The analysis of 46,079 job listings also took into account the location of the roles to find out which cities are benefitting the most from the four-day workweek.
London has the highest percentage of jobs with four-day working week opportunities (2.70%) which was double the UK average (1.32%). This may be expected with London’s job market, but outside of the capital the top cities may surprise some.
In the East Midlands, Nottingham had the next highest percentage of opportunities (1.99%) ahead of Sheffield (1.97%) in third, followed by Liverpool (1.96%), and Stoke-on-Trent (1.58%).
The jobs most likely to offer four-day workweeks
If you want to work four days a week for the same full-time pay, these are the roles to look out for. The percentage refers to the number of job adverts that offer a four-day workweek across the UK.
| Rank | Job | % of roles offering 4 -day workweek | Average UK salary for role |
| 1 | Quality Inspector | 5.17% | £27,000 |
| 2 | Security Officer | 4.92% | £24,987 |
| 3 | HR assistant | 2.50% | £24,390 |
| 4 | Marketing executive | 2.39% | £27,500 |
| 5 | Solicitor | 2.33% | £45,000 |
| 6 | Office administrator | 2.32% | £22,556 |
| 7 | HR manager | 2.13% | £45,000 |
| 8 | Data analyst | 1.81% | £35,000 |
| 9 | Public relations manager | 1.80% | £37,500 |
| 10 | Marketing manager | 1.72% | £40,000 |
Paul Gray is an entrepreneur and digital publisher who creates online publications focused on solving problems, delivering news, and providing platforms for informed comment and debate. He is associated with HRZone and has built businesses in the HR and professional publishing sector. His work emphasizes creating industry-specific content platforms.
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