"Although the percentages of stress level increases in the three places across two shores have reduced, they are still in the top ten among the 32 surveyed, and well beyond the global average (56%). This appears to be a reflection of the pace of growth in these economies," said Desmond Yuen, partner and head of China Services at Grant Thornton.
In comparison, businesses in Europe are the least stressed, with just 27% of Swedish businesses reporting an increase in stress levels, followed by Ireland (35%) and the UK, the Netherlands and France (37%).
Average Working hours in a week
The survey also studied business owners' average hours worked in a week. It shows that mainland China and Hong Kong business owners both work 54 hours on average a week, followed by Taiwan with 53 hours a week (see table 2). Businesses in the BRIC emerging markets tend to work the longest hours, with India at the top of the league table (57 hours). The findings revealed that the businesses in emerging markets are striving to take advantage of domestic and global economic expansion and thus, they are willing to work longer hours in order to keep their competitiveness.
"Globalisation and increasing technological advances have increased the pressure on business owners to 'always be contactable' and this appears to be having an increasing strain on their lives. The challenge for business owners is how they can improve modern working practices to allow time to 'switch off' from the strains of increasingly demanding business lives - while remaining competitive. However, business owners should understand that the management of work life balance and quality of life is very important too," said Dr. William Thomson, Experian's global economics director.
