Score another one for the New York Times interactive graphics department. [Thanks to Jason for bringing this to my attention.] They wrote a cool little article highlighting the differences between how the unemployed and employed use their time in a given day using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for 2008, which includes data from our current recession. The best part is the interactive graphic (shown below) that allows you to see what percentage of people in the given classification are doing each different activity each minute of the average day.
The interactive graphic allows you to compare how different groups use their time along the dimensions of sex, employment, race, age, education, and number of children. The article focused on the comparison between the employed and unemployed.
It is clear that the unemployed are doing more socializing and TV and movie watching than the employed. But the unemployed are also spending more time in human capital investment (education), job search, family care, and household activities. My favorite time use economist, Dan Hamermesh, said it best in the article. Speaking of the unemployed, he said "If all we were doing is substituting production at home for production in the marketplace, then maybe unemployment wouldn't be so bad."
It is probably true that the costs of unemployment are overestimated because we usually don't account for the human capital investment and home production that takes place.
I worked as a research assistant for Dan Hamermesh on a number of his projects using the ATUS data while I was a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin (see "Papers Worked on as a Research Assistant"). I think he is probably one of the world authorities on how people choose how to use their time, and I highly recommend his work in the area.
It is clear that the unemployed are doing more socializing and TV and movie watching than the employed. But the unemployed are also spending more time in human capital investment (education), job search, family care, and household activities. My favorite time use economist, Dan Hamermesh, said it best in the article. Speaking of the unemployed, he said "If all we were doing is substituting production at home for production in the marketplace, then maybe unemployment wouldn't be so bad."
It is probably true that the costs of unemployment are overestimated because we usually don't account for the human capital investment and home production that takes place.
I worked as a research assistant for Dan Hamermesh on a number of his projects using the ATUS data while I was a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin (see "Papers Worked on as a Research Assistant"). I think he is probably one of the world authorities on how people choose how to use their time, and I highly recommend his work in the area.
is that Eastern Daylight Time?
The ATUS data come from time diaries that individuals filled out from midnight to midnight during one day. It also accounts for activities that started before midnight at the beginning of the period or ended after midnight at the end of the period. So the hour of the day is relative to the person filling out the time diary. In other words, the survey controls for time zone and daylight savings.
I'm glad I saw this, big thanks!