Labor month in review
The
June Review
Families and employment
Multifactor productivity
Time use
Combined July/August issue
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Labor month in review from past issues
As we come to press, the catastrophic hurricanes of 2005 are still a vivid memory. Michael L. Dolfman, Solidelle Fortier Wasser, and Bruce Bergman investigate the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the economy and labor market of New Orleans. They find that despite significant job losses almost across the board, the three key industries in the New Orleans economy survived. By surviving, tourism, port operations (including at-sea petroleum mining), and educational services provide a base for the city’s eventual recovery.
Paul E. Gabriel and Susanne Schmitz analyze gender differences among workers’ occupations and employment patterns. They find that differences in occupational distributions have remained fairly stable and that shifts across occupational lines are not much different than they were in the past. When they did a more detailed examination of those shifts, Gabriel and Schmitz discovered that to reach a more gender-neutral occupational distribution, women would have to move in large numbers from white- to blue-collar jobs. They conclude, "This is unlikely, however, in light of recent occupational employment patterns and choice by gender. Thus, U.S. women in their thirties and forties do not appear to encounter significant levels of involuntary segregation across broad occupational categories."
Among married-couple families, 83.8 percent had an employed member in 2006, unchanged from 2005. The proportion of married-couple families in which only the husband worked declined to 19.8 percent in 2006 from 20.2 percent in 2005. The proportion of married-couple families in which only the wife worked remained at 6.5 percent. The proportion that was dual-worker couples (both husband and wife employed) rose from 51.3 percent to 51.8 percent. The proportion of married-family couples in which no family member was employed was 16.2 percent in both 2005 and 2006.
In the private business sector, multifactor productivity—output per combined units of labor and capital inputs—grew at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in 2006. The multifactor productivity gain in 2006 reflected a 3.8-percent increase in output and a 2.7-percent increase in the combined inputs of capital and labor. Capital services grew 3.0 percent. Labor input posted an increase of 2.6 percent, as both hours worked and labor composition rose. A change in multifactor productivity reflects the change in output that cannot be accounted for by the change in combined inputs of labor and capital. To learn more, see "Preliminary Multifactor Productivity Trends, 2006," news release USDL 07–0758.
On an average weekday in the 2003-2005 period, full-time university and college students spent 3.1 hours engaged in educational activities. Students spent 8.5 hours sleeping, 4.1 hours in leisure and sports activities, and 2.7 hours working, on average. Traveling took 1.5 hours of the average student day, eating and drinking took 1.0 hour, and grooming, 0.7 hour. All other activities combined averaged 2.4 hours out of the 24-hour weekday.
Married women ages 25 to 54 who were employed full time and lived with a child under 6 spent fewer hours per weekday in 2005 caring for household children than women who were not employed or only worked part time. Women who worked full time also spent fewer hours engaged in leisure and sports activities, household activities, and sleeping than women who were not employed or only worked part time. (Household activities include housework, food preparation and cleanup, lawn and garden care, and household management.)
In 2005, employed individuals age 65 and older spent 2.4 fewer hours on average per day engaged in leisure time activities than those who were not employed. Those who were not employed spent most of their additional leisure time watching TV (1.3 hours) and reading (0.5 hour). Watching TV was the most common leisure activity for both groups.
To learn more about how people in various groups spent their time, see Charts from the American Time Use Survey online at www.bls.gov/tus
To maintain our publication goals for this year, Monthly Labor Review plans to consolidate its July and August issues. The combined issue will be available online at the end of August.
Communications regarding the Monthly Labor Review may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief by e-mail to mlr@bls.gov, by mail at 2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Room 2850, Washington, DC, 20212, or by fax to (202) 691–7890.
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