It's been nearly three years since COVID hit the world in 2020. The pandemic-induced lockdowns made almost the entire world¡¯s workplaces shift to remote work. And the United States was no exception.?
By working from home, Americans got 60 million hours of their commute time back, as per a recent research using detailed data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) It indicates that those workers who no longer spend hours commuting to and from the office are using that reclaimed time to focus on their wellbeing.?
Though many people have returned to the office as the world has opened up in the post-pandemic era, over 15% of full-time workers are still completely remote, and an additional 30% have hybrid schedules, according to?data collected by economists who are investigating the sustainability of work-from-home policies, as per the CNBC report.
As per Statista data,?around?157.53 million people were employed in the United States in 2019. For 2023, an increase of almost 2 million employed people is expected, taking the number to 159.58. It had a population of 328.55 million in 2019.
In order to determine how?employees?are using their extra time, research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysed data from the American Time Use Survey.
So here¡¯s what they found about how remote workers are allocating the free time they¡¯d otherwise be spending mostly in standstill traffic on the road.
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¡°We find that employed individuals allocate their saved commute time toward leisure activities and sleeping, while reducing overall work hours,¡± researchers wrote, as per the report.
The data suggests working at home has prompted people to start work a bit early, to get things done during their previous commuting?hours. But, time spent doing their job during paid work hours decreased overall and was allotted to non-work-related activities.
As per the research, from childcare to sleeping to leisure activities, here are some things that employees who?work from home are now prioritising more these days,? and how much time participating in them has increased daily:
1. Sleeping (up by about one hour)
2. Leisure activities at home (up by more than two hours)
3. Non-market work, including household maintenance, repairs, and meal prep (increased by 10 to 36 minutes, away from home and at home, respectively)
"The rise in leisure was particularly pronounced among younger Americans, who reported spending more time at social events, eating at restaurants or bars, and exercising," according to the researchers.
Other activities that saw increases are childcare, job searching, and income-generating ventures that aren¡¯t directly associated with the person¡¯s full-time job. Following the pandemic, leisure time alone or with household members rose by 2.3 hours.
"This added benefit of working from home, for those who want it, will be an important consideration for the future of?flexible?work arrangements," the researchers mentioned.?
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