In 1956, then–Vice President Richard Nixon declared that the four-day workweek was inevitable. He quickly retracted that statement, but now, at least in Europe, it seems he might have been right after all. Average working time is falling in Europe: we now work almost one hour less per week than we did about ten years ago.

Many have argued that a thirty-hour week is the future. Shorter working hours would be good for the environment, for productivity, for employee health, for society at large, or for all of it combined.

So, do the recent figures in Europe mean it’s time for proponents of the thirty-hour week to pop the champagne corks?