Persons with a Disability: Barriers to Employment, Types of Assistance, and Other Labor-Related Issues Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Friday, June 22, 2012                  USDL-12-1246

Technical information:  (202) 691-6339  *  atusinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/tus
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov


                       Persons with a Disability: Barriers to Employment, Types of Assistance, and Other Labor-Related Issues -- 2011 RESULTS    


In 2011, 16 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 15 and 
over were eldercare providers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 
today. This and other information about eldercare providers and the time they 
spent providing care were collected for the first time in the 2011 Persons with a Disability: Barriers to Employment, Types of Assistance, and Other Labor-Related Issues (ATUS). This release also includes the average amount of time 
per day in 2011 that individuals spent in various activities, such as working, 
household activities, childcare, and leisure and sports activities. For a
further description of ATUS data, concepts, and methodology, see the Technical 
Note. //DISSUP QCT Test ZUNI3 09122024//

Eldercare in 2011

   --Of the 39.8 million eldercare providers in the civilian noninstitutional 
     population, the majority (56 percent) were women. Eldercare providers are 
     those who provided unpaid care to someone over the age of 65 who needed 
     help because of a condition related to aging. (See table 13.)

   --Individuals ages 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 were the most likely to provide 
     eldercare (23 and 22 percent, respectively), followed by those age 65 
     and over (16 percent). (See table 13.)

   --Sixty-nine percent of eldercare providers cared for only one person in 
     2011. (See table 14.)

   --Forty-two percent of eldercare providers cared for a parent. 
     (See table 14.)

   --Twenty-three percent of eldercare providers were parents of 1 or more 
     household children under age 18. (See table 14.)

   --On average, 24 percent of eldercare providers cared for at least 1
     eldercare recipient per day. Eldercare can involve a range of care
     activities, such as assisting with grooming, preparing meals, and
     providing transportation. Eldercare also can involve providing
     companionship or being available to assist when help is needed, and
     thus eldercare can be associated with nearly any activity. (See table
     15.)

   --On days they provided eldercare, persons spent an average of 3.1 hours 
     providing this care. Just over half of this time was associated with 
     leisure activities (1.0 hour) and household activities (42 minutes). 
     (See table 16. Unlike estimates elsewhere in this release, major 
     activity categories do not include related travel time.)

Working (by Employed Persons) in 2011

   --On days that they worked, employed persons spent an average of 7.6
     hours working. More hours were worked, on average, on weekdays than 
     on weekend days--8.0 hours compared with 5.7 hours. (See table 4.)

   --On the days that they worked, employed men worked 47 minutes more
     than employed women. This difference partly reflects women's greater
     likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers
     (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked longer
     than women--8.3 hours compared with 7.8 hours. (See table 4.)

   --Many more persons worked on weekdays than on weekend days: 82 percent 
     of employed persons worked on an average weekday, compared with 35 
     percent on an average weekend day. These estimates include individuals 
     who worked on days they were not normally scheduled to work. For example, 
     the 35 percent of workers who worked on a weekend day includes those 
     whose jobs are typically scheduled on weekends, as well as those who 
     usually work on weekdays but spent time working on the weekend. (See 
     table 4.)

   --On the days that they worked, 21 percent of employed persons did some 
     or all of their work at home, and 85 percent did some or all of their 
     work at their workplace. Men and women were about equally likely to do 
     some or all of their work at home. (See table 6.)

   --Multiple jobholders were more likely to work on an average weekend day 
     than were single jobholders--57 percent compared with 33 percent. 
     Multiple jobholders were also more likely to work at home than single 
     jobholders--31 percent compared with 20 percent. (See tables 4 and 6.)

   --Self-employed workers were three times more likely than wage and salary 
     workers to have done some work at home on days worked--56 percent compared 
     with 18 percent. (See table 7.)

   --On the days that they worked, 36 percent of employed persons age 25 and 
     over with a bachelor's degree or higher did some work at home, compared 
     with only 11 percent of those with less than a high school diploma. (See 
     table 6.)

Household Activities in 2011

   --On an average day, 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men spent some 
     time doing household activities such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or 
     financial and other household management. (For a definition of average day, 
     see the Technical Note.) (See table 1.)

   --On the days that they did household activities, women spent an
     average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.1 hours.
     (See table 1.)

   --On an average day, 19 percent of men did housework--such as cleaning 
     or doing laundry--compared with 48 percent of women. Forty percent of 
     men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 66 percent of women. 
     (See table 1.)

Leisure Activities in 2011

   --On an average day, nearly everyone age 15 and over engaged in some 
     sort of leisure activity (95 percent), such as watching TV, socializing, 
     or exercising. Of those who engaged in leisure activities, men spent 
     more time in these activities (5.8 hours) than did women (5.2 hours). 
     (See table 1.)

   --Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time
     (2.8 hours per day), accounting for about half of leisure time, on
     average, for those age 15 and over. Socializing, such as visiting with
     friends or attending or hosting social events, was the next most
     common leisure activity, accounting for nearly three-quarters of an
     hour per day. (See table 1.)

   --Men were a little more likely than women to participate in sports, 
     exercise, or recreation on any given day--20 percent compared with 
     17 percent. On the days that they participated, men also spent more 
     time in these activities than did women--1.9 hours compared with
     1.3 hours. (See table 1.)

   --On an average day, adults age 75 and over spent 7.4 hours engaged
     in leisure and sports activities--more than any other age group; 25-
     to 44-year-olds spent 4.2 hours engaged in leisure and sports activities--
     less than other age groups. (See table 11.)

   --Time spent reading for personal interest and playing games or using 
     a computer for leisure varied greatly by age. Individuals age 75 and
     over averaged 58 minutes of reading per weekend day and 21 minutes
     playing games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely, individuals
     ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 7 minutes per weekend day while
     spending 1.2 hours playing games or using a computer for leisure. (See
     table 11.)

   --Employed adults living in households with no children under age 18 engaged 
     in leisure activities for 4.5 hours per day, an hour more than employed 
     adults living with a child under age 6. (See table 8.)

Care of Household Children (by Adults in Households with Children) for
the period 2007-11

   --Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent an average of 
     2.0 hours per day providing primary childcare to household children. 
     Adults living in households where the youngest child was between the 
     ages of 6 and 17 spent less than half as much time providing primary 
     childcare to household children--47 minutes per day. Primary childcare 
     is childcare that is done as a main activity, such as physical care of 
     children and reading to or talking with children. (See table 9.)

   --On an average day, among adults living in households with children 
     under age 6, women spent 1.1 hours providing physical care (such as 
     bathing or feeding a child) to household children; by contrast, men
     spent 26 minutes providing physical care. (See table 9.)

   --Adults living in households with at least one child under age 6 spent
     an average of 5.5 hours per day providing secondary childcare--that is,
     they had at least one child in their care while doing activities other
     than primary childcare. Secondary childcare provided by adults living
     in households with children under age 6 was most commonly provided while
     doing leisure activities (2.2 hours) or household activities (1.3
     hours). (See table 10.)

   --Adults living in households with children under age 6 spent more time
     providing primary childcare on an average weekday (2.1 hours) than on
     an average weekend day (1.8 hours). However, they spent less time
     providing secondary childcare on weekdays than on weekend days--4.6
     hours compared with 7.7 hours. (See tables 9 and 10.)

Additional Data

ATUS 2011 data files are available for users to do their own tabulations 
and analyses. In accordance with BLS and Census Bureau policies that 
protect survey respondents' privacy, identifying information was removed 
from the data files and some responses have been edited. The 2011 data 
files are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/tus/data.htm.