Business Intelligence - Baseline
Home arrow Business Intelligence arrow What People Do All Day

What People Do All Day

By Dennis McCafferty on 2010-09-01


When it comes to work and play, men and women are on different wavelengths, according to new findings from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey. In fact, the BLS folks found out a lot about how we live in this report. Among the questions answered: How much time do we spend at work? How many hours do we devote to cleaning our homes? What about exercise? Watching TV? The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) survey had approximately 13,100 individuals report their activities over a 24-hour period. Participants were taken from households that completed their eighth (and final) interview for the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is the nation's monthly household labor force survey. One person age 15 or over was randomly chosen from each sampled household. Here's a conclusion that clearly emerges from the results: Our work week is a bit of a blur, as weekends are no longer strictly off limits when it comes to getting the job done. Does this sound familiar to you 24/7 IT workers out there?
  • of
7.5 hours is the average amount of time that employed people spend on the job on days they work.

5 hours is the number of average amount of time spent on the job on a weekend work day.

56 minutes is how much longer men spend on the job than women on an average work day.

Men work longer on the job because women are more likely to be employed part-time than men.

24 percent of employed people do some or all of their work at home.

59 percent of multiple job-holders are likely to work on a weekend day.

32 percent of single job-holders are likely to work on a weekend day.

60 percent of self-employed workers are likely to do some work at home.

20 percent of wage/salary workers report that they do at least some work from home.

40 percent of those with at least a bachelor's degree do some work at home, compared to only 10 percent with less than a high school diploma.

85 percent of women spend time during an average day on housework, cooking, lawn care, finances or other household duties.

67 percent of men spend time during the average day taking care of these household duties.

2.6 hours is the average amount of time that women spend on household activities on days that they do so; men spend 2 hours doing so.

96 percent of us spend some time on leisure activity on an average day.

5.6 hours is the amount of time that men spend on leisure activities on an average day, compared to 5 hours for women.

2.8 hours is the time that Americans report that they spend watching TV on an average day - accounting for about half of our leisure time.

21 percent of men exercise or play sports or otherwise take part in recreation on any given day; 16 percent of women do so.

  • More slideshows

 
LATEST STORIES

rss graphic
       Baseline Newsletters