“The reduction in life hours of work since 1850: estimates for Dutch males” by Jaap de Koning follows the 1995 paper by Jesse Ausubel and Arnulf Gruebler Working less and living longer: Long-term trends in working time and time budgets.
de Koning finds the number of hours Dutchmen work during their lives gradually diminished. Men born in 1840 worked on average 118 thousands hours, while it is only 67 thousands hours for the 1950 cohort. As a percent of total number of hours available to a man, the decline is from 23% for the 1840 birth cohort to 9%for the 1950 birth cohort. The finding resembles what Jesse and Arnulf found for American males. Technology lifts productivity and lengthens lives, and the changed ratio of work to life explains many of the benefits and worries of modern societies.