# American Time Use Survey -- 2022 Results

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


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.

• 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).

• 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). 

• 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.

• 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).

 • 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. 
 
 
### 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. 

• On the days they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.7 hours on these activities, while men spent 2.2 hours. 

• On an average day, 22 percent of men did housework—such as cleaning or laundry—compared with 47 percent of women. 

  • 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). 
  
  
### 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). 

• 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. 

• 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. 

• 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). 

 • 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. 
 
 • 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). 
 
 
### 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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). 

• 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).


### 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.