BLS reports details how Americans spend their time

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released 2009 results from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). These data include the average amount of time per day in 2009 that individuals worked, did household activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities. Additionally, measures of the average time per day spent providing childcare – both as a primary (or main) activity and while doing other things – for the combined years 2005-2009 are provided. Except for childcare, activities done simultaneously with primary activities were not collected.

Working (by Employed Persons) in 2009

• Employed persons worked an average of 7.5 hours on the days they worked.  More hours were worked, on average, on weekdays than on weekend days – 7.9 hours compared with 5.0 hours.
• On the days that they worked, employed men worked 56 minutes more than employed women. This difference partly reflects women's greater likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked longer  than women – 8.3 hours compared with 7.5 hours.
• Many more people worked on weekdays than on weekend days; that is, they spent some time doing tasks required for a job, regardless of whether it was part of their usual work schedule or arrangement. Eighty-three percent of employed persons worked on an average week day, compared with 35 percent on an average weekend day.
• On the days that they worked, 24 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home, and 84 percent did some or all of their work at their workplace. Men and women were about equally likely to do some or all of their work at home.
• Multiple jobholders were almost twice as likely to work on an average weekend day as were single jobholders – 59 percent compared with 32 percent. Multiple jobholders also were more likely to work at home than were single jobholders – 32 percent compared with 22 percent.
• Self-employed workers were three times more likely than wage and salary workers to have done some work at home on days worked – 60 percent compared with 20 percent.
• On the days that they worked, 40 percent of employed people age 25 and over with a bachelor's degree or higher did some work at home, compared with only 10 percent of those with less than a high school diploma.

Household Activities in 2009

• On an average day, 85 percent of women and 67 percent of men spent some time doing household activities such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management.
• On the days that they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.0 hours.
• On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework – such as cleaning or doing laundry – compared with 51 percent of women. Forty percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women.

Leisure Activities in 2009

• On an average day, nearly everyone age 15 and over (96 percent) engaged in some sort of leisure activity, such as watching TV, socializing or exercising. Of those who engaged in leisure activities, men spent more time in these activities (5.8 hours) than did women (5.1 hours).
• Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.8 hours per day), accounting for about half of leisure time, on average, for those age 15 and over. Socializing, such as visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events, was the next most common leisure activity, accounting for nearly three-quarters of an hour per day.
• Men were more likely than women to participate in sports, exercise or recreation on any given day – 21 percent compared with 16 percent. On the days that they participated, men also spent more time in these activities than did women, 2.0 hours compared with 1.4 hours.
• On an average day, adults age 75 and over spent 7.8 hours engaged in leisure activities – more than any other age group; 35- to 44-year-olds spent 4.3 hours engaged in leisure and sports activities – less than other age groups.
• Time spent reading for personal interest and playing games or using a computer for leisure varied greatly by age. Individuals age 75 and over averaged 1.0 hour of reading per weekend day and 26 minutes playing games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely, individuals ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 5 minutes per weekend day while spending 1.0 hour playing games or using a computer for leisure.
• Employed adults living in households with no children under 18 engaged in leisure activities for 4.5 hours per day, an hour more than employed adults living with a child under age 6.

Care of Household Children (by Adults in Households with Children) for the Period 2005-2009

• Adults living in households with children under 6 spent an average of 2.0 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children. Adults living in households where the youngest child was between the ages of 6 and 17 spent less than half as much time providing primary childcare to household children – 47 minutes per day. Primary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as physical care of children and reading to or talking with children.
• On an average day, among adults living in households with children under 6, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care (such as bathing or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men spent 0.5 hour providing physical care.
• Adults living in households with at least one child under 6 spent an average of 5.6 hours per day providing secondary childcare – that is, they had at least one child in their care while doing activities other than primary childcare. Secondary childcare provided by adults living in households with children under 6 was most commonly provided while doing leisure activities (2.2 hours) or household activities (1.3 hours).
• Adults living in households with children under 6 spent more time providing primary childcare on an average weekday (2.1 hours) than on an average weekend day (1.8 hours). However, they spent less time providing secondary childcare on weekdays than on weekend days – 4.7 hours  compared with 7.7 hours.