U.S. workers give up vacation time

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A survey by the travel Web site Expedia finds that on average U.S. employees expect to forfeit two vacation days this year.

The most common reasons workers gave Expedia for the sacrifice are lack of money to spend on travel and failing to plan for time off, CNN reported.

Other surveys, by Hotwire and JetBlue, have found even bigger chunks of vacation going unused. The Hotwire survey, released this month, estimated the average unused time at 6.2 days, while JetBlue put it at 11.

Analysts give various reasons for the failure to take vacations. Layoffs have left many workers trying to do more and made it harder to schedule time off.

Stuart Rubinstein, managing director of TD Ameritrade, said many worry if they leave the office temporarily they might be next on the layoff list.

Workers in many other countries have a different attitude. In France, employees typically get 30 days off a year and use all of them, and British workers do the same with their 25 days.

In Japan, on the other hand, the average vacation entitlement is 11 days -- and the average number of days taken is five.