Employment status transitions and shifts in daily activity-travel behavior with special focus on shopping duration

Although there is a significant body of work associating socio-demographics with activity-travel behaviors, very few prior studies have examined the relationship between changes in employment status and adaptations in activity-travel patterns. To examine this issue, this study employs data of the Puget Sound Panel Survey, comprising a total of 7135 respondents. Through descriptive analyses and a random parameters panel effects regression model, we analyze changes in the time spent on shopping between two consecutive waves of the panel differentiating between employment status transitions, after controlling for a set of socio-demographic variables and day of the week. Results indicate that while activity-travel patterns in general and shopping duration in particular are relatively stable for the groups showing no transitions in employment status, the transition groups show evidence of a reorganization of their shopping activities across the week. In addition, results of the model indicate that the relationship between change in employment status and dynamics in shopping behavior is not symmetrical.