Walter Watts
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virus: More lies, damn lies and useless statistics
« on: 2004-09-15 08:58:40 » |
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Americans Get Plenty of Sleep, Watch Lots of TV
Sep 15, 7:57 am ET
By Andrea Hopkins
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The average American spent 8.6 hours a day
sleeping last year, only 3.7 hours working and had 5.1 leisure hours --
half of which was spent watching television, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The national study included everyone from working parents with almost no
free time to retirees and teenagers -- helping to explain why this
"average" day does not reflect anyone's actual day.
Working parents aged 25 to 54 appeared to have the longest day. They
spent eight hours a day working or commuting, slept for 7.5 hours, spent
2.6 hours on leisure and sport, 1.3 hours caring for others and 1.1
hours on housework. The rest of the day was spent eating, shopping,
grooming or on other activities.
The telephone survey of 21,000 people over the age of 15, conducted
throughout 2003 for the Department of Labor, is the first national
survey of time use in the United States and offers a treasure trove of
statistics. For the study, respondents were asked to recount 24 hours of
activity from the previous day.
The results confirm the suspicions of many that women do more work
around the home than men -- even when both work full time. On an average
day, 84 percent of women and 63 percent of men did housework, cooked,
cared for the lawn or managed household finances. Women also spent more
time on housework, at 2.3 hours a day compared with 1.3 hours for men.
But men put in more hours of paid work, the survey showed, working 8.0
hours compared to the women's average of 7.1 hours. Part of that
difference is because women are more likely to work part time. But even
among full-time workers, men worked a bit longer -- 8.3 hours versus 7.7
hours for women.
The average American had 5.1 hours a day for leisure, half of which was
spent watching television, the survey found. The typical person also
spent 41 minutes socializing, 22 minutes reading, 20 minutes on sports
or recreation, 20 minutes relaxing and thinking, 17 minutes playing
games, often on the computer, and 31 minutes on other leisure activities.
Men typically had more leisure than women, with 5.4 hours compared to
4.8 hours. Those with children under the age of six had the least time
off -- at 4.0 leisure hours.
The survey counted time use mainly according to "primary activity" -- so
that if you watched television while you ironed clothes or ate dinner,
only one activity was counted.
The one exception was for child care, which could be a primary or
secondary activity. Women spent more time caring for kids than men, at
1.7 hours versus 0.8 hours.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a working mom with a child under 6 got less
sleep and free time than a stay-at-home mom, but the homemaker spent
nearly twice as much time caring for others and working around the home.
Travel time was counted with whatever activity was involved -- so that a
commute was included in work time, while shuttling the kids to soccer
was part of child care.
Sex was counted under a larger "personal care" category -- rather than
as a leisure activity -- and was not quantified.
Economists and social scientists hope the study can be used as a first
step toward putting a dollar amount on unpaid work to help measure total
economic output, income and productivity -- as well as gauge Americans'
quality of life.
As it currently stands, U. S. gross domestic product rises when a family
puts a child in day care or sends their shirts to the dry-cleaner, and
falls if they cancel day care or do their own laundry -- even though the
same amount of work is done in both examples.
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