Time Use Survey: Labour Market Results: 1999
To mark the occasion of International Women's Day, Judy Lawrence, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Women's Affairs and
Len Cook, Government Statistician, have released more results from the Time Use Survey. This release focuses on the
different amounts of time that women and men spend in paid and unpaid work.
aOther labour market statistics, such as the Household Labour Force Survey, estimate the number of employed and
unemployed by sex, age group and region," says Len Cook. "The Time Use Survey complements these statistics by telling us
the time actually spent on paid work and how that interrelates with other activities for different groups of people,a he
adds.
aThe Time Use Survey shows us a detailed picture of how paid work, unpaid work, and free time correlate over the life
cycle for women and men," says Judy Lawrence.
Some of the main findings are:
Men in all age groups spend more time on paid work than women, but women do a daily average of two hours more unpaid
work.
Men usually working less than 20 hours a week do less unpaid work than men who work longer hours.
Maori women and men both spend more time than non-Maori on unpaid work outside the home - an average of 39 minutes per
day compared to the 31 minutes of non-Maori.
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Women who usually work 30 or more hours a week in paid employment and have a pre-school child, work an average of 5.0
paid hours a day over a seven-day week. They also spend 5.0 hours a day on unpaid work and have 2.8 hours of free time.
Men whose usual hours of paid work are 30 or more, work 6.9 hours a day on average when they have a pre-school child,
spend 3.0 hours on unpaid work and have 3.2 hours of free time.
Rural people do more paid work at home than urban people - 32 per cent of rural people's paid work is done at home
compared to 9 per cent of urban people's.
Rural people do more of their labour force activity in the weekends than urban people.
More men than women work long hours in paid work. Of all the daily records for men, 16 per cent recorded labour force
activity of 10 hours or more. The proportion increased to 25 per cent in the 35-54 age group. This compares to the
average 5 per cent for women of all ages.
Paid workers spend an average of 44 minutes travelling to and from work each day. Workers on higher incomes spend more
time travelling to work than those on lower incomes.
The Ministry of Women's Affairs and Statistics New Zealand are planning a publication on time use statistics for
mid-2000 which will contain more in-depth analysis. Further media releases focusing on different topics are planned.
Judy Lawrence
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
MINISTRY OF WOMEN'S AFFAIRS
Len Cook
GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN
Supplementary Information Time use and labour activity
The average time spent on labour market activity by women aged 12-24 years is 1.7 hours per day across a seven-day week.
This increases steadily with age as far as the 45-54 age group. The figures are 2.8 hours per day, 3.1 hours, 3.6 hours
and 1.75 hours for women aged 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 55-64. For women aged 65 and over, time spent on paid work falls
to 8 minutes per day. For men, the pattern is similar over the life cycle, but men spend on average more time on paid
work at all ages. The figures are: 2.25 hours per day, 5.9 hours, 5.9 hours, 6.0 hours, 4.0 hours and 38 minutes for the
age groups 12-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65 and over. Labour market activity includes work for pay or profit,
education or training in work time, job search activities and travel associated with labour force activity.
In contrast, women at all ages do more unpaid work than men a on average two hours per day more. Unpaid work includes
household work, caregiving for household members, purchasing goods and services for one's own household, and unpaid work
outside the home.
Paid work and unpaid work As hours in paid work increase, the general pattern is for time spent on unpaid work to
decline. However, men usually working less than 20 hours a week do less unpaid work than men who work longer hours. For
women, in contrast, the amount of time spent on unpaid work only declines significantly for those usually working 30
hours or more per week.
The presence of young children is an important factor in the balance between paid work and other responsibilities,
particularly for people usually working 30 or more hours per week in paid employment. Women who usually work 30 or more
hours spend, across a seven-day week, an average 5.0 hours per day on paid work if the age of the youngest child is 0-4.
They spend 5.8 hours per day if the youngest child is 5-12 and 6.0 hours per day if the youngest child is over 12. These
women also have high unpaid work responsibilities. Where the youngest child is a pre-schooler, they spend 5.0 hours per
day on all types of unpaid work, and have 2.8 hours per day free time. Free time includes religious, cultural and civic
participation as well as social entertainment, sports and hobbies, and mass media and free-time activities.
The pattern is rather different for men in these circumstances. Men in paid employment work longer hours on average and
their hours do not correlate so strongly with the age of the youngest child. Men work 6.9 hours per day where the
youngest child is 0-4, 7.1 hours per day where the youngest child is 5-12 and a almost the same a 7.0 hours per day
where the youngest child is over 12. Their unpaid work contributions are less than women's a 3.0 hours per day where the
youngest child is a pre-schooler, and they have 3.2 hours per day free time.
Both Maori women and men in the paid workforce spend more time than non-Maori on unpaid work outside the home. On
average, Maori spend 39 minutes per day on unpaid work outside the home, compared with 31 minutes for non-Maori.
Employed Maori women and men spend similar time on unpaid work outside home - 32 minutes per day for women compared to
30 for men. Employed Maori men's 30 minutes per day on unpaid work outside the home compares with 24 minutes for
non-Maori men. Employed Maori women's 32 minutes per day on unpaid work outside the home compares with 30 minutes for
non-Maori women.
Self-employed compared to employees On average, full-time self-employed men spend 7.1 hours per day on labour force
activity. This is a little more than full-time male employees a 6.8 hours per day. In contrast, full-time self-employed
women spend less time on labour force activity than full-time women employees do a 5.4 hours per day compared with 6.0
hours per day. The difference is counterbalanced by the self-employed women spending, on average, almost 50 minutes a
day more in unpaid work. This suggests that more women than men take on self-employment as a way to balance unpaid work
responsibilities.
How long do we spend travelling to worka On average, paid workers spend 44 minutes travelling to and from work each day.
Those travelling by public transport spend an average of 61 minutes travelling a day compared to the 41 minutes spent by
those using private transport and the 28 minutes spent by those on foot or bicycle. Part-time workers spend less travel
time on average (36 minutes) than full-time workers (46 minutes). Workers on higher incomes spend more time, on average,
travelling to work than those on lower incomes. Urban workers spend around five minutes more a day travelling to and
from work than rural workers do.
Work at home People living in centres with 10,000 or fewer people had a very different pattern in the proportion of paid
work done at home compared to urban people. Thirty-two per cent of rural people's time spent on work for pay or profit
took place at home compared to 9 per cent for urban people.
Overall, women and men spend similar proportions of their paid work time at home. Thirteen per cent of the total amount
of time spent on work for pay or profit by women is done at home and 85 per cent is done at the work place. For men, the
figures are 16 per cent and 80 per cent.
Long hours and work at weekends and night On average, more men than women work long hours in paid employment. Sixteen
per cent of the daily records for men contained labour force activity of 10 hours or more, compared to 5 per cent of
women's. For men, this proportion varied strongly with age. Twenty-five per cent of men's daily records in the age group
35-54 contained labour force activity of 10 hours or more. Activity also varies with occupation. Thirty per cent of
plant and machine operators and assemblers' records contained 10 hours or more labour force activity, compared with 9
per cent for clerks, and service and sales workers.
On average, men and women have the same weekday/weekend split of the total amount of time spent on paid work. Eighty-six
per cent of labour force activity by women is done on weekdays and 14 per cent at the weekend, while the figures for men
are 87 per cent and 13 per cent. Again, rural people's pattern differed from their urban counterparts. Rural women spent
18 per cent of their labour force activity at the weekend, and rural men 17 per cent. The figures for urban women and
men are 13 per cent and 11 percent.
Ten per cent of women's labour force activity, and 11 per cent of men's, are contained between the hours of 8 pm to 6
am.
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