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E C O N O M I C R E P O R T O F T H E P R E S I D E N T

Economic Report of the President - The American Presidency Project

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suffer from a time crunch; the share of these parents working full-time rosefrom 56 percent to 67 percent from 1968 to 1998.Thus, although the choice to enter the labor market results in morematerial goods for families, these benefits come at the expense of home time.Evidence that families are feeling a time crunch comes from a 1995 nationalsurvey that asked whether respondents “always feel rushed, even to do thethings you have to do.” Thirty-three percent said yes, compared with 24 percentin 1965. The analysis of changes in parents’ allocation of time in thissection provides a closer look at how patterns of family care have changed aswomen have entered the labor force.Time Use and Child CareAs women spend more time in paid employment and a larger share offamilies are headed by single parents, families have less time to devote tounpaid activities, including time with children. Between 1969 and 1999, forexample, the total amount of parental time available outside of work fell inboth married-couple and single-parent families (Chart 5-9). This conclusioncomes from analyzing the trend in time reported in the Current PopulationSurvey (CPS) as spent at work. To construct the time available on a dailybasis, the analysis starts with 48 hours per day for married couples and 24hours for single parents. It then subtracts the average daily amount of timespent at work plus 8 hours per parent per day for sleep. Because the proportionChapter 5 | 191

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