Measuring how people spend their time: a time-use survey design

Time-use studies typically have a single focus: to study the frequency and duration of human activities. For example, time-use surveys may ask respondents to report everything they did during a 24-hour period along with some indication of the starting and stopping times of those actions. This chronological reporting procedure avoids many pitfalls that other survey estimation procedures encounter and is less subject to distortion due to “social desirability bias.” But there are many methodological considerations to take into account when designing a timeuse survey. Decisions concerning reporting procedures and mode of data collection may influence data quality. Likewise, the choice of follow-up probes and the treatment of simultaneous activities can determine the amount of information available for accurate and reliable coding of activities. This article describes the methodological decisions that the BLS time-use working group faced when designing a possible time-use survey. It also presents the methodological choices that the group made and provides the rationale for those selections. While time-use research (that is, the actual enumeration of the activities people perform) may have originated within the social sciences and the time management domain of the business world, international governments have also been quick to recognize the value of this information. A number of their policy-related issues can be addressed with time-use data. Consequently, the question is not so much “why?” time-use data should be collected, but rather, “how?” it can be collected well.