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Subscribe to RSSA new batch of government data shows that men clocked more time at the office in 2011 than they did in 2010.
The average increase in time men spent at work or on work-related activities went up even though the percentage of the population that was working didn’t rise by much. Experts say it’s a sign those who are working likely labored harder.
Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, sees it as a sign of the bifurcation of the economy between those who have a job – and now have more work to do – and those who don’t have a job and still are largely left out of the economy.
“This is still a very small change, but what it does suggest is that those who are doing well are doing better and better, and those who are doing badly are (still) doing badly,” said Hamermesh, who is best known for his book “Beauty Pays,” which argues attractive people are more successful.
The American Time Use Survey found that, on average, men spent 5.32 hours each weekday on work and related activites in 2011. That compares with 5.1 hours in 2010. Men also spent more weekend and holiday time working in 2011.
That figure includes people who are retired or otherwise out of the labor market and therefore didn’t work at all. Only about 60 percent of men were working or doing other related activities – including looking for work – during the week in 2011. That’s virtually unchanged from 2010.
Looking more closely just at the group who did work or related activities, they spent an average of 8.85 hours each weekday on those activities in 2011. That’s up from 8.57 in 2010.
For women, there was very little change in working hours between the two years.
As the economy slowly improved, more men had jobs at the end of 2011 than at the end of 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But more men also became working-age during the year, and the growth in jobs wasn’t enough to offset the growth in men available for work. The labor force participation rate for men 16 and older fell slightly between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011. It has since fallen a bit further.
The data on working hours is from the American Time Use Survey, a detailed annual look at everything from how much we sleep to how long we spend in front of the TV. The 2011 survey was based on a broad survey of more than 12,000 Americans.
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For every $30,000 worth of work I have available, it costs me nearly $55,000. Sorry, not hiring.
I think maybe you need a new business model. Sounds like you're running a dining establishment, with no bar.
yep, I work harder, and those people not working, whose sole intention is not to work, is getting more and more of my money in govt handouts to support their lazy asses.
Yep its a good thing I keep working harder so I can keep supporting dead beats who freeload on the system.
I just wanted to know since all those from puerto rico are U.S. Citizens can I move to puerto rico and collect welfare and sit on the side walk all day? Why not? I have a handicap I swear to you I can't speak spanish.
OOO but its TRUE!
Equal Rights is all I ask for.
John Haddock,
You are so right, you bust your butt for years only to have it given away because we are the goody country..Im so sick of these lazy fat poor little me people..
Lusitania, we are not the good country. We are the country who rapes and plunders the world. We have slave labor working for us across the world. We have it good. The money we give to our unemployed only keeps them silent. We don't need a rebellion here at home, thus we pay. Or the riots will burn down cities. Yet we don't care about the elderly that much. We keep rates low and their investments don't earn much. We steal from social security so they won't get any soon. Why? Because they are old. They can't go out and riot. They don't matter. This is who we are.
I can't believe there is an article in FAVOR of men...especially on MSNBC. Can't wait for the feminists to come out in droves and refute it without any support other than "I know this one girl who works a lot of hours, so this article isn't true".
Men have always worked harder. It's what we are built for. When I drive around town, I see 99% MEN doing street construction, home construction, utility pole operations, lawn services, roofing, piping. Go get your car serviced and what do you see...MEN. Law enforcement...primarily MEN. Drive around any neighborhood and what do you see, MEN cutting the lawns, washing cars, up on ladders, landscaping the yard, fixing the kids bikes...etc. Also, I dont know any man that doesn't do dishes, vacuum and do laundry too.
Yet, you never see anyone saying that women should be out cutting grass, fixing the roof or changing the oil cause that is a "man's job" and through recent surveys, women still truly feel that way AND feel men should be providers.
But, it is sexist to claim ANYTHING is "woman's work.
not to say there are no women mowing lawns or firefighting or going down the sewer pipes but they are the true 1-percenter. so I laugh when they whine about women in a workplace not getting the same kudos as men. We men know what other men can get done that women cannot so we don't hire them for half-ass job. and yes we suck at taking care of babies, those men who are good at it are actually gay.
I run my business with 20% less workforce than in 2008 and we have increased sales 50% and profits 100% in that time...I don't feel one bit that I should hire anyone else just because we are doing well...I'd rather take care of who I have and ask them to work OT to get us through super busy periods...
But, therein is the major problem. Everyone is in it for themselves. Prosperity under cpaitalism should exist and remain. But, not extreme capitalism. This is how you end up with a CEO who makes $30 million in a year, his second in command makes $200k a year and everyone underneath them makes $10.00 an hour under a "do more with less" mentality.
What do you get? Less taxes coming into the economy, unemployment rates go up and then all those people do is collect social welfare and unemployment checks which are unsustainable because nobody is paying into the system. JOBS create a better economy...period.
Selfishness like that is what kills this country. Business owners arent happy with $150k - $300k a year salary. They have to be millionaires, which is all fine and dandy, so long as you arent cutting corners and reducing wages to extremes to get your desired salary.
No wonder this country's economy is going into the toilet.. If you aren't giving some of those profits to your valued members of your team,you're milking them dry and you should be ashamed.
b23049 - Yeah, no wonder. You just want another hand out. Didnt you notice how he said he would give them OT?
Woo-hoo, that's what I want. More overtime! Last week, in my department, where nobody sits on their butts in an ergonomic chair. Every single person I work with, made a point of asking our department head, when the hell he was going to hire some more people. We're sick of overtime. Hire somebody!
Anything over 12 hours a week overtime, just all goes to taxes. You're not doing us any favors by working us to death. You jerks!
There is nothing wrong with not hiring people, if the people you have can do the job and don't mind putting in some extra hours.
I love how people think that because a business is making money, they should automatically hire another person, even if that person isn't needed. yet these people complaining have never ran their own business.
Freaking liberals man. Always think business owners are out to screw them in some way.
I lead by example, and I have no difficulty in sharing my opinion, with my coworkers, when it's time to milk the clock. A general slowdown, explained by "Gee Boss, we're all on overtime, and we're exhausted.", is the only way I see for us to get more people hired.
I'm not coming right out and telling everyone else to stop busting their hind ends to make it cost the company more to work us more, than to hire somebody Saying that, might get me fired. I'm just slowing down, and saying "I'm on overtime again this week, and I have to conserve my energy, so feel free to hang out and milk the clock as long as you want. I'm in no hurry to get this done, I'll be here all week, and then some.", when I should be sending them home. I also repeat, at every opportunity. "I'm getting too old for this @!$%#."
Unfortunately. I'm up against decades of personal work ethic. I can't bring myself to walk past work that needs doing, with empty hands. I think about the job I'm doing, instead of how sore I'm going to be when I get home. So my diatribe above, while I know it's what I want to do, is only workable on an intellectual level. I still find myself realizing that I've been running flat out for the last too hours, and thinking, "Well that was stupid!". Dang it!
Rick,
Same here. When 08 hit it hurt, but after we leaned out, we're making much better profit with less workforce. My guys are glad to have the O/T and I'm happy to pay it to them.
I don't force anybody to work it, and when I notice one of them getting that glazed, burned-out look I make 'em take a long weekend.
And Rob-lotsanumbers and B23049, get bent. It's people like you who subvert what this country was built on; capitalism. I take a modest salary, and share the good times with my people because I want to. But I'd rather burn the place down than do it because those of your ilk force me to.
Work harder & longer for less; that's been the pattern. Companies use the human resources gestapo to figure out who the company should hire that can achieve the impossible with nothing, work harder for less compensation, then throw them out once they figure out a way to downsize in order to achieve more profitability. Welcome to the future.
Oh, that's just poppycock.
HR is just doing their job; getting the best person for the best price. It's like shopping.
And no company gleefully downsizes, nor do they take joy in using people up. That's just a paranoid fantasy you've invented.
Grow up.
Spoken like a true HR parasite who lives with his head shoved straight up his over-sized rectum.
working harder? no sh*t Sherlock.... thanks for the heads up
i don't have that problem anymore...
Of course we are working harder. It started with Reagonomics, which was basically "work harder, make less".
Quit my job in November 2011 (almost had a nervous breakdown because of stress). I decided that if I am going to work that hard, it will now be for myself in my own business. Fuch corporate unamerica.
So how many people have you hired since starting your own business? Are you profitable? If so, why aren't you hiring more people right now and sharing that money?
JH, maybe he's happy just as a one man band. I admit I was far happier when my business was just 3 people.
At a time when I should be slowing down ( 66) , I find the pedal is still down 50 plus hours/week. I have never been without a job since the day after graduating High School. Must admit, I'm starting to feel it, burn out at the next set of lights.
"for those who are doing well it's getting better and better"
uh, no. i'm doing well and it's getting worse. now that i have to do 2 peopl's jobs i am never finished, constantly hurried and told to work faster and always behind. if they aloowed overtime i might be able to catch up if i ever felt like taking it but why would i want to sit here any longer each day to help my company's bottom line when they aren't appreciative nor concerned about helping me back? last raise was in 2008 and it didn't even keep up with inflation for that year nor did it make up for the previous raises that didn't or the years we didn't even get a raise.
When I was employed..I remember when those higher up the ladder never got out of the truck to do anything..now they are scared of being laidoff like some of us..and not only they get out of the truck they have to work now..they don't cry about nothing anymore like they always use to do..how life changes so easy!
Duh! This has been going on for 20 years. Working harder and getting paid less. It's become the American way (unless you're in the special 1 %). Just heard this morning that the most stagnant state for increases in wages was Minnesota where I'm from. I guess it's just another form of Minnesota nice.
This is the result of years of GOP leadership in the congress and in the White House. They ran our economy right into the ground and it still has not recovered. I'll be voting against the people who got us into this mess and hope that a new congress that wants to get something done for the average American worker will emerge.
They never got us into this mess. The deficit has nothing to do with the recession. Blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Somebody save me from my job!!! In Michigan it's horrible here!!! I feel like a workhorse being whipped...I already work 40 hours a week + overtime and we're expected to make more and new quotas and do it in less time. I'd rather shovel @!$%# than wor cust serv...wonder what the life expectancy is for us lol. And don't worry in my job, we're the good guys we try to help and we don't call you, you call us
then quit your job loser. If you don't like it quit. someone else will do it. Move to florida where I live. There is plenty of @!$%# I can find for you to shovel. In 95 degree weather too.
Waaaaaahh 40 hrs+ is hard!! Give me a break. you are a whiny lazy loser. Tell me where you work so I can call them and tell them you are quiting and coming to work for me, shoveling sh!t
Guess what.
I already knew that.
Thanks for the new bulletin, msnbc.com
Nothing like the threat of losing your job to motivate one to kill themselves for the greedy employers today. Guess What? Is this something new? Stupid article.
greedy employers. I love it. If it wasn't for an employer you would have no job and no money at all.
Yea I can see how your employer, paying you to do something is the greedy one.
Do you own a tv? More than 1? if so you are greedy. There are people in africa with none. There is no reason to have two tv's. its obvious you are just greedy
Don't worry about Africa. After it becomes too expensive to outsource jobs to China and India, it looks like the outsourcing is going to Vietnam, some companies are moving there already. Africa will get a turn too. Not only will Africans get that TV, but one day, being a Somali Pirate, will mean you sell bootleg DVDs.
We the willing
Have been doing the impossible
For so long with so little
We are now qualified
To do anything with nothing.
A quote I heard many many years ago that is now very true.
Haven't seen a raise in three years and don't expect to see one this year.
We the unwilling, is how I heard it.
IN my experience, I have found that large privately owned businesses are running as lean as possible while growing business substantially. People are getting fired/laid off for BS reasons just to reduce headcount, and not being backfilled. Basically cutting all the dead weight. The org structure just gets shuffled around. A lot of internal financial reconciliation since the recession and A LOT of uncertainty still looming in the business community, thanks to our radical Administration.
On the other hand, I've been in some publically owned shops where upper mgmt and C-levels have more leeway and have more control over their HR dept, thus slightly more gracious in their staffing numbers.
Went through a merger/aquisition last year. A publically owned company was bought by a privately owned competitor. The new company is off to a very rough start and loosing a lot of business and talent.
Work in IT. Can't really complain much. i think IT professionals unemployment rate is somewhere around 3.8%
There is no shortage of work in IT. Talented engineers can get a job anywhere anytime.
The reason most of these guys are working harder is because they were slacking off and when the economy went into the tank they realized they better get to work to retain there jobs!
I'm not a guy, but this article really hit home. I work for a large gaming corporation in Las Vegas. We have many properties all over the country and in Macau and thousands of employees. We haven't had raises in 3 years because of "the economy." They also took away our 401K ER match and gave us such lousy insurance that we can't afford to go to the doctor when needed. Instead of investing in ee's well-being, they constantly remodel, build and buy new properties. My work load has tripled and is impossible to maintain. Quality of work has suffered greatly. Meanwhile, the CEO makes $20 million a year! We are constantly reminded that our jobs can be outsourced to the Phillipines at any moment, like so many other back-of-the-house departments already have. They make us so desperate and fearful of losing our jobs that we are willing to put up with anything. Las Vegas has one of the worst unemployment rates in the country, so we have no other options.
This is nothing new, as my company takes more and more away, and expects more and more. Nobody gives a s---!!