Josh Katz reports for The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2015, that every year, the American Time Use Survey asks thousands of Americans to record a minute-by-minute account of one single day. For many “prime-age” adults, those between the ages of 25 and 54, a significant chunk of time on weekdays is taken up by work. But for the almost 30 million prime-age Americans who don’t work, a typical weekday looks far different.
Nonworkers spend much more time doing housework. Men without jobs, in particular, spend more time watching television, while women without jobs spend more time taking care of others. And the nonemployed of both sexes spend more time sleeping than their employed counterparts.
One way to see these patterns is to look at what the “average” nonemployed person does with his or her time. That’s the view you see in the charts below.
Click charts to enlarge!
Here’s the color code:
- Looking for a job (yellow green)
- TV and movies (darker blue)
- Leisure/entertainment (sky blue)
- Sleeping (light grey)
- Housework (dark plum)
- Caring for others (tan)
- Education (mango yellow)
- Socializing (mauve)
See also:
- “Record number of Americans (92m) not in labor force,” Jan. 10, 2014.
- 86M Americans simply don’t want to work: 40% of women, 28% of men, 39% of youth
- Majority of Americans unprepared if economy collapses
- Nearly 1 of every 2 Americans live paycheck to paycheck
- Nearly half of U.S. college graduates can find only low-wage jobs
- The death of U.S. manufacturing jobs – in one graph
~Eowyn