Don't scoff, it's true - young Kiwis are working like never before.
While today's teenagers have a reputation as rude and lazy, new research suggests they're not the slackers their elders would have you believe.
A new report by the United States Department of Labour, comparing international labour
force data, shows New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the world for the number of teenagers in the workforce.
A Chartbook of International Labour Comparisons, covering 1995 to 2005, finds that 54.4 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds are working - a figure which puts us fifth among the 20 countries surveyed.
Australia leads the pack with 60.6 per cent of teenagers in paid work, followed by Denmark and the Netherlands.
These figures are higher than those from the last census which show that 27 per cent of 15-year-old fulltime students were in paid work, 40 per cent of 16-year-olds and nearly half the 17-year-olds.
As expected, numbers rise in the 20-24 age bracket - but New Zealand still lags behind nine other countries with 71.8 per cent of that demographic in the workforce.
New Zealand also has a high number of women in the workforce - 60.1 per cent compared with 74.3 per cent of men. In Italy, Spain and Mexico the gender divide is remarkable - in those countries less than half the female population is in paid employment.
Kiwis are also spending more time at work, with men on average clocking up 1842 hours a year, and women 1809 hours.
Hours worked are similar to Australia, the US and many Europe, but far less than Korea where men work more than 2600 hours a year, and women 2300.
