American Time Use Survey Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, June 22, 2023                            USDL-23-1364

Technical information:  (202) 691-6339  *  atusinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/tus
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


                        AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY -- 2022 RESULTS


In 2022, 34 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home on days 
they worked, and 69 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at their 
workplace, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. 

These and other results from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) were released today. 
They include the average amount of time per day in 2022 that individuals worked, did 
household activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities. Additionally, 
measures of the average time per day spent providing childcare--both as a primary 
(or main) activity and while doing other things are provided. For a detailed 
description of ATUS data and methodology, see the Technical Note.

Working (by Employed Persons) in 2022

   --On days they worked, 34 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work 
     at home and 69 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at their 
     workplace. On average, those who worked at home did so for 5.4 hours on days they 
     worked, and those who worked at their workplace did so for 7.9 hours. 
     (See table 6.)

   --The share of employed persons who spent time working at home on days worked 
     decreased slightly from 38 percent in 2021 to 34 percent in 2022. However, 
     workers were still more likely to work at home in 2022 than in 2019, before the 
     COVID-19 pandemic (34 percent compared with 24 percent). (See table 6.)

   --Workers with higher levels of education were more likely to work at home than were 
     those who had less education. Among workers age 25 and over, 54 percent of employed 
     persons with a bachelor's degree or higher performed some work at home on days 
     worked, compared with 18 percent of those with a high school diploma and no college. 
     Workers with a bachelor's degree or higher were equally likely to work on an average 
     day as were those with a high school diploma and no college (68 percent). 
     (See table 6.)  

   --On days they worked, employed men worked 32 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 more per day than women--8.3 hours, compared with 7.8 hours. (See table 4.)

   --On days they worked, employed women were more likely than employed men to do some or 
     all of their work at home--41 percent of women, compared with 28 percent of men. On 
     days they worked at home, employed women and men spent the same amount of time doing 
     so (5.4 hours). (See table 6.)

   --Many more people worked on weekdays than on weekend days: 81 percent of employed 
     persons worked on an average weekday, compared with 29 percent on an average weekend 
     day. Employed persons also spent more time working on weekdays than on weekend 
     days--8.0 hours compared with 5.6 hours. (See table 4.)

Household Activities in 2022

   --On an average day, 85 percent of women and 70 percent of men spent some time doing 
     household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or household management.
     (See table 1.)

   --On the days they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.7 hours on 
     these activities, while men spent 2.2 hours. (See table 1.)

   --On an average day, 22 percent of men did housework--such as cleaning or 
     laundry--compared with 47 percent of women. (See table 1.)

   --On average, more people engaged in housework on weekend days than on weekdays: 
     40 percent compared with 33 percent. However, they were more likely to engage in 
     food preparation and cleanup on weekdays (62 percent) than on weekend days 
     (57 percent). (See table 2.)

Leisure and Sports Activities in 2022

   --On an average day, nearly everyone age 15 and over (95 percent) engaged in some sort
     of leisure and sport activity, such as watching TV, socializing, or exercising. Men 
     spent more time in these activities than did women (5.6 hours, compared with 4.8 hours).
     (See table 1.)

   --On average, adults age 75 and over spent 7.5 hours engaged in leisure and sports 
     activities per day--more than any other age group; those ages 25 to 54 averaged 4.2 
     hours doing leisure and sports activities per day--less than other age groups. 
     (See table 11A.) 

   --Watching TV was the leisure and sports activity that occupied the most time 
     (2.8 hours per day), accounting for over half of all leisure time, on average. 
     (See table 11A.)

   --Playing games and computer use for leisure, and socializing and communicating were the 
     next most common leisure and sports activities after watching TV. On an average day, 
     individuals spent 34 minutes playing games and using a computer for leisure and 34 
     minutes socializing and communicating. They spent twice as much time socializing on 
     weekend days (53 minutes) as on weekdays (25 minutes). (See tables 11A and 11B.)

   --Time spent reading for personal interest and playing games or using a computer for 
     leisure varied greatly by age. On an average day, individuals age 75 and over spent 
     40 minutes reading while those ages 15 to 19 read for 13 minutes. Conversely, 
     individuals age 15 to 19 spent 1 hour and 38 minutes playing games or using a 
     computer on an average day, while those ages 75 and older spent 29 minutes doing so. 
     (See table 11A.) 

   --Employed adults living in households with no children under age 18 engaged in leisure 
     and sports activities for 4.6 hours per day, over an hour more than did employed adults 
     living with a child under age 6 (3.4 hours). (See table 8B.)

Care of Household Children in 2022

   --Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent an average of 2.1 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--49 minutes per day. Primary childcare 
     is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as providing physical care or reading 
     to 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 31 minutes providing physical care. (See table 9.)

   --On average, among adults living with children under age 6, those who were not employed 
     spent nearly an hour more per day caring for and helping household children than did 
     employed adults--2.6 hours versus 1.7 hours. (See tables 8B and 8C.)

   --Adults living in households with at least one child under age 13 spent an average of 
     5.3 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 13 was most commonly
     provided while doing leisure activities (2.0 hours) or household activities (1.2 hours).
     (See table 10.)

   --Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent about the same amount of time 
     providing primary childcare on an average weekday and weekend day (2.2 hours and 2.0 hours, 
     respectively). However, they spent less time providing secondary childcare on weekdays 
     (4.7 hours) than on weekend days (7.6 hours). (See tables 9 and 10.) 

Additional Data 

ATUS 2022 data files are available for users to do their own tabulations and analyses.
In accordance with BLS and Census Bureau policies that protect the privacy of survey 
respondents, personally identifying information does not appear on the data files. 
The 2022 data files are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/tus/data.htm.