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hours worked & hours overworked

I was puzzled with the graph on the growth in hours worked (The Economist, February 3rd-9th 2007; see the chart on the right). Yes, for each particular country it exposes the change for the two time periods but what is behind the change: does an increase in ‘hours worked’ means that a particular country put more people to work and/or to work longer hours? What if some people work less because they are more productive? Moreover, the chart presents a selection of counties, and not a random selection I believe. How should I read the differences among the countries? The percentage changes plotted on the chart are relative to each country, there is no common reference. Besides, is there a direct relationship between hours worked and any of the economic values?

graph : growth in hours worked (The Economist)

Should I look for the people who work less but keep their economic growth steady because they are more skilled and/or work with higher capital? The graph below relates changes in hours worked with the changes in real GDP (i.e. growth of gross domestic product valued at a specific year's prices). And yes, hours worked are not by themselves a determining factor of economic well-being although they are more important in weaker and start-up capitalistic economies.