Work and Leisure On the Reporting of Poll Results

Abstract

Louis Harris has reported a substantial increase in work between 1973 and 1985 and a corresponding decrease in availability of free Data from Current Employment Statistics of Department of Labor show a decline of work week in same period. Data from National Opinion Research Center's General Social Surveys show a rough constancy in work week. Previous analyses of Current Population Survey results also point to constancy as appropriate conclusion for period in question. Examination of Harris studies shows five changes in procedure. These changes in method may well have produced changes he reported. Harris's finding is challenged also by other results from his studies, which show increased participation in a wide range of leisure-time activities. Louis Harris, noted public opinion expert, has presented two remarkable findings in his recent book, Inside America (1987). They are introduced in a chapter entitled Is Leisure Time on Way Out in America? The findings are stated clearly, unambiguously, and with no qualification: Since 1973 number of hours worked by Americans has increased by 20%, while amount of leisure time available to average person has dropped by 32% (p. 17). Adding some details, a second summary statement has it that the number of hours average American spends at work each week has increased from 40.6 in 1973 to a current 48.8, a rise of 8.2 hours a week or one hour and 10 minutes a day (p. 19). The end point for period under discussion was 1985; 20 percent increase in work, therefore, occurred within relatively brief span of 12 years. Harris is certainly justified in referring to these as dramatic shifts in working hours and leisure time. That change in work week would be most important development since setting of 40-hour standard with Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The reRICHARD F. HAMILTON is professor of sociology and political science at Ohio State