Workers in the UK are some of the least job orientated people in the world, according to a new study. 

Research has found that less than one in four people think their career should come first in their lives.

Overall, 73% of Britons polled in the World Values Survey said work was an important part of their lives – compared to 96% in Italy and 94% in France.

Only 22% of those UK workers said their jobs should always come first, even if it means less spare time.

Between 1981 and 2022, the share of the British public who said it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work rose from 26% to 43%.

The results, which have been analysed by the Policy Institute at Kings College London, also found generational differences in attitudes towards employment.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “Older generations are more likely to say work should be prioritised, even as it becomes less important in their own lives as they move into retirement.

“Millennials, in contrast, have become much more sceptical about prioritising work as they’ve made their way through their career.

“There will be a number of explanations for these shifts, from the nostalgia that tends to grow as we age, in thinking younger generations are less committed than we were, and the long-term economic and wage stagnation that will lead younger generations to question the value of work.”

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More than half of millennials, people in their late 20s to early 40s, said it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work, a rise from 31% in 2005.

But only 34% of baby boomers, people aged in their late 50s and 70s, agree – and just 22% of the pre-war generation.

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