For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Friday, June 22, 2012 USDL-12-1246
Technical information: (202) 691-6339 * atusinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/tus
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY -- 2011 RESULTS
In 2011, 16 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 15 and
over were eldercare providers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
today. This and other information about eldercare providers and the time they
spent providing care were collected for the first time in the 2011 American
Time Use Survey (ATUS). This release also includes the average amount of time
per day in 2011 that individuals spent in various activities, such as working,
household activities, childcare, and leisure and sports activities. For a
further description of ATUS data, concepts, and methodology, see the Technical
Note.
Eldercare in 2011
--Of the 39.8 million eldercare providers in the civilian noninstitutional
population, the majority (56 percent) were women. Eldercare providers are
those who provided unpaid care to someone over the age of 65 who needed
help because of a condition related to aging. (See table 13.)
--Individuals ages 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 were the most likely to provide
eldercare (23 and 22 percent, respectively), followed by those age 65
and over (16 percent). (See table 13.)
--Sixty-nine percent of eldercare providers cared for only one person in
2011. (See table 14.)
--Forty-two percent of eldercare providers cared for a parent.
(See table 14.)
--Twenty-three percent of eldercare providers were parents of 1 or more
household children under age 18. (See table 14.)
--On average, 24 percent of eldercare providers cared for at least 1
eldercare recipient per day. Eldercare can involve a range of care
activities, such as assisting with grooming, preparing meals, and
providing transportation. Eldercare also can involve providing
companionship or being available to assist when help is needed, and
thus eldercare can be associated with nearly any activity. (See table
15.)
--On days they provided eldercare, persons spent an average of 3.1 hours
providing this care. Just over half of this time was associated with
leisure activities (1.0 hour) and household activities (42 minutes).
(See table 16. Unlike estimates elsewhere in this release, major
activity categories do not include related travel time.)
Working (by Employed Persons) in 2011
--On days that they worked, employed persons spent an average of 7.6
hours working. More hours were worked, on average, on weekdays than
on weekend days--8.0 hours compared with 5.7 hours. (See table 4.)
--On the days that they worked, employed men worked 47 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 7.8 hours. (See table 4.)
--Many more persons worked on weekdays than on weekend days: 82 percent
of employed persons worked on an average weekday, compared with 35
percent on an average weekend day. These estimates include individuals
who worked on days they were not normally scheduled to work. For example,
the 35 percent of workers who worked on a weekend day includes those
whose jobs are typically scheduled on weekends, as well as those who
usually work on weekdays but spent time working on the weekend. (See
table 4.)
--On the days that they worked, 21 percent of employed persons did some
or all of their work at home, and 85 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 more likely to work on an average weekend day
than were single jobholders--57 percent compared with 33 percent.
Multiple jobholders were also more likely to work at home than single
jobholders--31 percent compared with 20 percent. (See tables 4 and 6.)
--Self-employed workers were three times more likely than wage and salary
workers to have done some work at home on days worked--56 percent compared
with 18 percent. (See table 7.)
--On the days that they worked, 36 percent of employed persons age 25 and
over with a bachelor's degree or higher did some work at home, compared
with only 11 percent of those with less than a high school diploma. (See
table 6.)
Household Activities in 2011
--On an average day, 83 percent of women and 65 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 average 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 2.1 hours.
(See table 1.)
--On an average day, 19 percent of men did housework--such as cleaning
or doing laundry--compared with 48 percent of women. Forty percent of
men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 66 percent of women.
(See table 1.)
Leisure Activities in 2011
--On an average day, nearly everyone age 15 and over engaged in some
sort of leisure activity (95 percent), 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 (5.2 hours).
(See table 1.)
--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. (See table 1.)
--Men were a little more likely than women to participate in sports,
exercise, or recreation on any given day--20 percent compared with
17 percent. On the days that they participated, men also spent more
time in these activities than did women--1.9 hours compared with
1.3 hours. (See table 1.)
--On an average day, adults age 75 and over spent 7.4 hours engaged
in leisure and sports activities--more than any other age group; 25-
to 44-year-olds spent 4.2 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 58 minutes of reading per weekend day and 21 minutes
playing games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely, individuals
ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 7 minutes per weekend day while
spending 1.2 hours playing games or using a computer for leisure. (See
table 11.)
--Employed adults living in households with no children under age 18 engaged
in leisure activities for 4.5 hours per day, an hour more than employed
adults living with a child under age 6. (See table 8.)
Care of Household Children (by Adults in Households with Children) for
the period 2007-11
--Adults living in households with children under age 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. (See table 9.)
--On an average day, among adults living in households with children
under age 6, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care (such as
bathing or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men
spent 26 minutes providing physical care. (See table 9.)
--Adults living in households with at least one child under age 6 spent
an average of 5.5 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 age 6 was most commonly provided while
doing leisure activities (2.2 hours) or household activities (1.3
hours). (See table 10.)
--Adults living in households with children under age 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--4.6
hours compared with 7.7 hours. (See tables 9 and 10.)
Additional Data
ATUS 2011 data files are available for users to do their own tabulations
and analyses. In accordance with BLS and Census Bureau policies that
protect survey respondents' privacy, identifying information was removed
from the data files and some responses have been edited. The 2011 data
files are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/tus/data.htm.
