Global Working Hours, Hydrogen Compass 2025, Microturbines for data centers, California Climate Bills
Global Employment and Working Hours, NBER
New research using ILO and World Bank data covering 97% of the world population finds:
59% of the world’s adult population is employed. They work an average of 43 hours per week.
Women supply 35% of (GDP producing) hours worked, while men supply 65%.
We confirm this pattern in long time series covering 86 countries: GDP growth is not significantly associated with either increasing or declining working hours.
Hours worked by the young (age 15-19) and the elderly (age 60+) fall with development. In simple cross-country regressions, these declines are entirely driven by rising school attendance for the young and public pension coverage for the elderly, in line with a broad body of work.
In contrast, we find that hours worked by prime-age adults (20-59) are flat, if not slightly increasing with GDP per capita. Female working hours rise with development, while male working hours decline but at a slightly lower pace.
Muslim/Hindu religion depresses female hours worked enormously while former communist status increases them.
The fall in male hours worked is driven by reduced hours per worker and is quantitatively offset by increases in female employment rates.
Global Hydrogen Compass 2025 report
New report from the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey summarises progress in hydrogen projects across the globe.
Committed (FID+ including FID, under construction, and operational projects) investment in clean hydrogen has now passed $110 billion across 510 projects, up $35 billion from last year and growing on average over 50% year-over-year since 2020.
Roughly 3.6 mtpa of binding offtake has been secured globally. In key markets such as the EU, US, Japan, and Korea, implementation and enforcement of existing policies could enable a total of up to 8 mtpa of clean hydrogen demand by 2030, although there is still more work to do. A further 13 mtpa could be unlocked through targeted infrastructure investment and continued cost reductions, but without timely implementation, much of the supply opportunity will remain unfulfilled.
Most interesting stories:
“Modular AI-ready microgrid-powered data centers” use microturbines that can run on natural gas, biogas, and LPG/propane
McKinsey report on predicted infra investments - $36 trillion for transport & logistics, $23 trillion for Energy
New California Climate Bills will allow the state to join a regional electricity market; force utilities to use cheaper financing; and improve the integrity of offsets
“Demand for uranium is forecast to rise by nearly a third by 2030”, CNBC
How China is Transforming Space Power
Today, Beijing is building an integrated space infrastructure, including reusable launch vehicles, orbital refueling and logistics, satellite mass production, and lunar industrialization. These interconnected capabilities aim to establish a strategic presence in Earth orbit, cislunar space, and on the Moon