we continentals are boring people sticking to jobs, hoping for better times.
I really don't think that a lot of people working shorter are changing their jobs. Industry jobs are relatively well paid. It doesn't necessarily pay more to switch job, when you have some qualifications for what you do, and the most likely employers for you all have the same collective bargaining agreement with the unions. And if the economy goes up, an increase in worked hours is easier to reestablish, than a fight on higher hourly wages won - plenty of examples for that.

More over, who is going to offer you any job in these times? There are few corporations, that suffer from undercapacity. They are happy, when they have work for the people, that they already have.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers