2008 American Time Use Survey — 2009-06-24

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor today released 2008 results from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). This annual release of ATUS data focuses on the average amount of time per day in 2008 that individuals worked, did household activities, cared for household children, participated in educational activities, and en- gaged in leisure and sports activities. It also includes measures of the average time per day spent providing childcare--both as a primary (or main) activity and while doing other things--for the combined years 2004-08. Except for childcare, activities done simultaneously with pri- mary activities were not collected. For a further description of ATUS data and methodology, see the Technical Note. --Employed persons worked an average of 7.6 hours on the days that they worked. They worked longer on weekdays than on weekend days--7.9 ver- sus 5.6 hours.