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Career & Workplace

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently analyzed the way Americans balance work, sleep, family time and fun in its American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for 2013. From it, I’ve gleaned several interesting tidbits:

1. The 40-hour workweek in America is a thing of the past

When I first looked at the raw data, I was taken aback. On the average day, the average American worked just 3.14 hours.

In the past, some publications have interpreted this as laziness — however, they fail to keep in mind that an “average” day includes all days of the week, including weekends. Additionally, the ATUS sample population includes everyone aged 15 and older—the employed, the unemployed, part-time workers, the disabled, and the retired alike.

Fortunately, ATUS breaks down the data into many tables, including tables that display the average hours worked for those who usually work. The average number of people who work on an average day is about 103 million of a total workforce of 151.7 million. So on the days when they worked, the average person worked 7.58 hours. While these statistics are slippery to work with, one can conclude that American workers put in an average of 53 hours per week. In addition, the average full-time worker spent 9.2 hours on work and work-related activities on an average weekday — hardly lazy.

2. If you work, you get less sleep, spend less time on childcare, and do less housework

Working constrains other activities and crowds out time to take care of our children, our houses, and ourselves.

Employed people over 18 — including part-timers — slept an average of 8.33 hours daily, as opposed to 9.63 for the unemployed. The unemployed, however, spent more time caring for other household members, averaging 2 hours, including 1.75 hours for childcare. Workers spent 1.19 hours on caretaking, including 0.98 hours on childcare — probably because their kids were in daycare during work hours. The unemployed also did more housework: 2.64 hours as opposed to 1.56 for workers.

Human Resources