by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."—Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, in War and Peace.

Late in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of the previous year’s American Time Use Study (ATUS), as it has annually since 2003. I've reported on it each year for more than a decade. The ATUS data for 2020, released in 2021, reflected significant effects from the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the nation since March 2020. Fortunately, during 2021, the crisis loosened its stranglehold on the economy, allowing it to bounce back to pre-plague levels. However, the economy has since fallen behind again due to the rise of the worst inflation since the 1980s (sure to be a significant factor in next year's report). 

A reminder: the ATUS study covers all individuals over 15 years old, including full-time high school and college students, the disabled, the unemployed, and retirees. It also covers every day of the week, including weekends and holidays. Therefore, the average hour per day worked may, at first glance, seem low. However, these numbers are averages for every day and every person, including those who didn't work or worked only part time. In the 2021 data, it also includes almost 2 million people holding multiple jobs.