The annual American Time Use Survey was released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Here are some key findings:
- In 2015, over 35 percent of workers in management, business, finance, or professional occupations, did some or all of their work from home on days they worked
- Employed individuals worked an average of 7.6 hours a day on days worked. Men worked 42 more minutes on average than women— this can partly be attributed to women being more likely to work part-time
- Workers were over three times as likely to complete work at the workplace rather than at home
- Having at least a bachelor’s degree makes one significantly more likely to work at home as opposed to the workplace
- 85 percent of women and 67 percent of men engage in household activities on an average day. Women spend 2.6 hours a day on average, while men spend 2.1 hours
- Both the percentage of women doing and time spent by women on housework have decreased slightly in the past few years
- 96 percent of Americans do a leisure activity on a daily basis. This includes watching TV, socializing, and exercising. Watching TV (nearly three hours a day) is most common.
- Americans aged 15 to 19 spent only eight minutes reading a day, while using a computer for leisure or playing games for 1.3 hours
- Parents with children under six years of age spent an average of two hours a day providing care to their young child
- Employed individuals without children spent over an hour more doing leisure activities a day than those with children
