One puzzle of modern life is that so many of us feel short of time, even though we work less than our forebears. In the 19th century, unions campaigned for “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what we will.” In the 20th century, they succeeded in their push for shorter working hours. But what happened to all that spare time we gained for doing “what we will”?
It’s not a perception problem: we really are stretched for time. Data from the OECD shows that the average time people spend on leisure has decreased since the 1980s. In the 2010s, the average time spent on leisure shrank in eight out of 13 countries for which data is available. It dropped by 14 per cent in Korea, 11 per cent in Spain, 6 per cent in the Netherlands, 5 per cent in Hungary and 1 per cent in the US.
The number of people in “time poverty” (which the OECD defines as those for whom the share of time devoted to leisure and regenerative activities is less than 60 per cent of the median) has risen since 2000 in the 10 countries for which data is available.