America is recognized as the hard working nation that’s known to take little or no vacation, lagging behind other developed countries when it comes to vacation days. Sadly, it seems to be the norm with this hard working nation, that takes less than half the vacation time of Europeans.

A new study shows that most American workers don’t use all their vacation days in the first place, this according to an article published by CNNMoney.com Friday.

About 57% of working Americans had unused vacation time at the end of 2011, and most of them left an average of 11 days on the table – or nearly 70 percent of their allotted time off, according the a study by Harris Interactive for JetBlue.

Other data shows company profits-per-employee are at a 10-year high as workers put in longer hours at work, according to Sageworks.

“We don’t have exact information on why profits increased, but I think it’s safe to say it’s a combination of people spending more time at work and technological advancements,” said Libby Bierman, a Sageworks analyst.

During the recession, companies cut back on staff and are functioning with less employees. Workers however, continue to work longer hours to secure their jobs.

About 9% of the survey respondents said they were afraid to take time off amid an unstable job market.

As well, a number of workers felt they had too much work to take vacation according to a study by Kelton Research.

A fifth of the workers surveyed also said they couldn’t afford to travel, according to the CNN article.

Research by Mercer also shows that employees in the U.S. have the least amount of statutory paid holidays in the world, along with Canada, Philippines, China and Thailand.