President Bush during a holiday in Crawford, Texas

New York, Aug. 21: Americans, who are already the hardest workers in the western world, are taking fewer holidays than they have done for almost 30 years, a survey says.

In a country where most employees only get two weeks off a year plus 10 public holidays, many people are now so ambitious or so terrified of losing their jobs that they have to be forced to take their meagre allowance.

According to the Conference Board, a private research group, 40 per cent of American workers are taking no summer holiday at all this year, the lowest percentage recorded for 28 years. Even President George W Bush, celebrated in previous years for taking most of August off at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, spent only 10 days there earlier this month.

About a quarter of American workers in the private sector do not get any paid holiday at all, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. It said a third of all American workers only take one week-long holiday a year. In a separate survey, the Travel Industry Association found that the longest summer trip for the average American lasts only six nights.

“The idea of somebody going away for two weeks is really becoming a thing of the past,” said Mike Pina, of the American Automobile Association. “It’s kind of sad, really, that people can’t seem to leave their jobs any more.”

The problem has become so severe that several large companies now close down at holiday periods to force obsessive workers from their desks. The accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers shuts down all its offices for 10 days at Christmas and five days for the Fourth of July.