Technical information: (202) 691-6339 USDL 09-0704
http://www.bls.gov/tus/
For release: 10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Wednesday, June 24, 2009
AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY--2008 RESULTS
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor
today released 2008 results from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS).
This annual release of ATUS data focuses on the average amount of time
per day in 2008 that individuals worked, did household activities, cared
for household children, participated in educational activities, and en-
gaged in leisure and sports activities. It also includes 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
2004-08. Except for childcare, activities done simultaneously with pri-
mary activities were not collected. For a further description of ATUS
data and methodology, see the Technical Note.
Working (by Employed Persons) in 2008
--Employed persons worked an average of 7.6 hours on the days that they
worked. They worked longer on weekdays than on weekend days--7.9 ver-
sus 5.6 hours. (See table 4.)
--On the days that they worked, employed men worked about 0.9 hour (52
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 versus 7.7 hours. (See table 4.)
--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 weekday
compared with 34 percent on an average weekend day. (See table 4.)
--On the days that they worked, 21 percent of employed persons did some
or all of their work at home, and 86 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. (See table 6.)
--Multiple jobholders were almost twice as likely to work on an average
weekend day as were single jobholders--59 versus 31 percent. Multiple
jobholders also were much more likely to work at home than were single
jobholders--36 versus 19 percent. (See tables 4 and 6.)
--Self-employed workers were more likely than wage and salary workers to
have done some work at home--55 versus 17 percent. (See table 7.)
--On the days that they worked, 35 percent of employed people age 25 and
over with a bachelor's degree or higher did some work at home compared
with only 9 percent of those with less than a high school diploma.
(See table 6.)
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Household Activities in 2008
--On an average day, 83 percent of women and 64 percent of men spent some
time doing household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care,
or financial and other household management. (For a definition of aver-
age day, see the Technical Note.) (See table 1.)
--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. (See table 1.)
--On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework--such as cleaning or
doing laundry--compared with 50 percent of women. Thirty-eight percent
of men did food preparation or cleanup compared with 65 percent of women.
(See table 1.)
Educational Activities in 2008
--About 10 percent of the population engaged in educational activities, such
as attending class or doing homework, on an average weekday. Those who
attended class on a weekday spent an average of 5.3 hours doing so, and
those who did homework and research on a weekday spent 2.7 hours in such
activities. (See table 2.)
Leisure Activities in 2008
--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 (5.7 hours) than did women (5.1 hours). (See
table 1.)
--Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time, ac-
counting for about half of leisure time, on average, for both men and
women. Socializing, such as visiting with friends or attending or
hosting social events, was the next most common leisure activity, ac-
counting for about three-quarters of an hour per day for both sexes.
(See table 1.)
--Men were more likely than women to participate in sports, exercise, or
recreation on any given day--21 versus 15 percent. On the days that
they participated, men also spent more time in these activities than
did women, 1.9 versus 1.3 hours. (See table 1.)
--On an average day, adults age 75 and over spent 7.6 hours engaged in
leisure activities--more than any other age group; 25- to 44-year-olds
spent just over 4 hours engaged in leisure and sports activities--less
than other age groups. (See table 11.)
--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 1.2 hours of reading per weekend day and 0.3 hour (17
minutes) playing games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely,
individuals ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 0.2 hour (10 minutes)
per weekend day while spending 1.0 hour playing games or using a com-
puter for leisure. (See table 11.)
--Employed adults living in households with no children under 18 engaged
in leisure activities for 4.5 hours per day, nearly an hour more than
employed adults living with a child under age 6. (See table 8.)
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Care of Household Children (by Adults in Households with Children) for
the period 2004-08
--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--0.8 hour (47 minutes) per day. Pri-
mary childcare is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as
physical care of children and reading to or talking with children.
(See table 9.)
--On an average weekday, among adults living in households with children
under 6, women spent 1.2 hours providing physical care (such as bathing
or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men spent 0.4
hour (25 minutes) providing physical care. On an average weekend day,
women provided an hour of physical care to household children, while men
provided half an hour. (See table 9.)
--Adults living in households with children under 13, 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 pro-
vided while doing leisure activities (2.2 hours) or household activities
(1.3 hours). (See table 10.)
--Adults living in households with children under 6 spent more time pro-
viding primary childcare on an average weekday (2.1 hours) than on an
average weekend day (1.7 hours). However, they spent less time providing
secondary childcare on weekdays than on weekend days--4.7 versus 7.6 hours.
(See tables 9 and 10.)
Microdata Release
Today, BLS also released ten 2008 ATUS microdata files for users who wish to do
their own tabulations and analyses. In accordance with BLS and Census Bureau poli-
cies that protect survey respondents' privacy, identifying information was removed
from the microdata files and some responses have been edited. The 2008 microdata
files are available on the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/tus/data.htm.
