July 28, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Working on the weekend

Many more people work on weekdays than on weekend days.

Percent of employed persons who worked on an average weekday or weekend day, by full- and part-time status, age 15 and older, 2005 annual averages
[Chart data—TXT]

About 83 percent of employed persons worked on an average weekday in 2005, compared with 32 percent on an average weekend day.

Among full-time workers, about 88 percent worked on an average weekday, while among part-time workers, 63 percent worked on a given weekday. Full-time and part-time workers were equally likely to work on a given weekend day; in each group, 32 percent worked on an average weekend day in 2005.

The American Time Use Survey is the source of these data. Note that the figures about weekend days are for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. You can find out more in American Time Use Survey — 2005 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-1276.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED