Leisure Time Plummets 20% in 2008 - Hits New Low

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – December 4, 2008 – Evidently the stock markets aren’t the only indices declining this year. America’s leisure time is shrinking, and how we spend that time is changing too. These are the latest results from The Harris Poll^®, which has been tracking America’s leisure time since 1973.

Harris Interactive^® surveyed 1,010 adults, by telephone between October 16 and 19, 2008 and found:

• The median number of leisure hours available each week dropped 20% in 2008, from 20 hours in 2007, to an all-time low of only 16 hours this year. This continues a trend which has seen America’s median weekly leisure time shrink 10 hours - from 26 hours per week in 1973, the first year we tracked it;
• The biggest changes this year in how people are using their precious leisure time were in TV watching (up 6 points), exercise (up 3 points) and spending time with family and kids (up 3 points);
• Since 1995 the largest changes in how people are spending their leisure time are exercising (up 6 points), computer activities (up 5 points), spending time with family and kids (up 5 points) and swimming (down 5 points).
• Three in ten (30%) Americans say their favorite activity is reading (up from 29% in 2007) while one-quarter (24%) say it is TV watching and 17% say it is spending time with family and kids (up from 14% in 2007). Rounding out the top five leisure time activities are exercise (8%) and computer activities and fishing (each at 7%);
• The median amount of time spent working, including housekeeping and studying, is now at 46 hours per week, up slightly from 45 hours in 2007. In 1973, when this question was first asked, the median was 41 hours a week;
• By generation, Generation Xers (those aged 32-43) are working the most hours (55 each week), followed by 50 hours each week for Echo Boomers (aged 18-31) and Baby Boomers (44-62). As many Matures are retired, they are only working 15 hours each week.

In 2008, Americans increased their work week one hour, yet claim to have lost four hours of leisure time. Where did the rest of the time go? We have a theory. As the American economic situation worsened, people who were worried about their jobs spent more time "just checking in" via computer or wireless device. While our respondents didn’t consider this as time spent working, they also didn’t count it as leisure time and landing instead in a nebulous grey area.

Also, as leisure time shrinks, Americans appear to be indulging more in solo activities. Four of this year’s top five choices are typically done alone: reading, watching TV, exercising, and computer activities. Reading, watching TV and exercising all increased this year, while computer activities dropped 2 points. While this may seem counterintuitive, since our research indicates that US Internet penetration is at an all-time high, it does add credence to our theory that Americans may be spending just as much or more time on computer activities, yet are considering this time as neither work nor leisure.

(Spontaneous, Unaided Responses)

"What are your two or three most favorite leisure-time activities?"

Base: All Adults

Other activities mentioned by one percent include racing, beach, and theater. * indicates less than 0.5%.

"First, we would like to know approximately how many hours a week you spend at your job or occupation, and that includes keeping house or going to school as well as working for pay or profit. How many hours would you estimate you spend at work, housekeeping or studies, including any travel time to and from the job or school?"

Base: All Adults

"And about how many hours each week do you estimate you have available to relax, watch TV, take part in sports or hobbies, go swimming or skiing, go to the movies, theater, concerts, or other forms of entertainment, get together with friends, and so forth?"

Base: All Adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between October 16 and 19, 2008 among 1,010 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, size of place (urbanicity) and number of phone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

J35169

Q655, 660, 665