A four-day week would help workers and firms | Letters

Readers on the viability of working four days to kickstart the economy and boost jobs

The report by the thinktank Autonomy (Four-day working week could create 500K new jobs in UK, study says, 30 August) is very welcome - and timely. An additional day's leisure would not only massively improve work-life balance, and indirectly help areas such as childcare, but of course stimulate the leisure, retail and hospitality industries, which have been hit very hard by the pandemic.

Retail practices have changed hugely from 50 years ago, when shops closed at 5pm (earlier on Saturdays) and Sunday was a barren day, with virtually no shops open and little entertainment available, to today's seven-day-week economy, with the ability to purchase goods and services 24/7.