Standing or walking versus sitting on the job in 2016

March 01, 2017

Most jobs require some standing or walking and some sitting. Across all civilian jobs in 2016, workers needed to spend an average of 61.0 percent of the workday standing or walking and 39.0 percent of the workday sitting. The mix of standing versus sitting varied by the occupation. For example, waiters and waitresses spent 96.3 percent of their workday standing or walking and just 3.7 percent sitting.

Welders, cutters, and welder fitters spent an average of 90.0 percent of their workday standing or walking. Other occupations in which workers spent much of their workday on their feet include retail salespersons (89.2 percent), electricians (88.2 percent), and pharmacists (78.1 percent).

Software developers, applications, spent an average of 90.0 percent of their workday sitting in 2016. Other occupations in which workers sit most of the day include bus drivers, school or special client, who spent an average of 82.4 percent of their workday sitting, accountants (80.7 percent), and insurance sales agents (80.3 percent).

These data are from the Occupational Requirements Survey. To learn more, see "Occupational Requirements in the United States — 2016" (HTML) (PDF).