That Extra Hour of Zzzzz's and TV

As the economy still stumbles along, millions remain unemployed.  How are they spending their extra time?   Getting more projects completed around the house, revving up their exercise routines, going to church, volunteering for the needy?


All sounds good but doesn't even come close.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, most people don’t want to mess with the big stuff.   And hell, when they’re out of work, many are depressed.  They can't even bear to socialize.

University of Michigan sociologist Sarah Burgard says, “It’s really hard to walk into a bowling alley or the Elks Club, and your friend asks you, ‘Did you get a job?”

Avoid the tough questions.  Stay home, watch TV, and sleep.

                                                        
According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Labor Department, the average American worked 3 hours, 11 minutes a day in 2009.

That’s 17 minutes less a day than in 2007.

It doesn’t sound like much, but when stretched across the entire population, that’s millions and millions of minutes. Which got economists to thinking: if Americans were unemployed, they would probably take jobs that they'd previously paid others to do, like cooking, cleaning, handyman work. Seems like an easy way to make a buck.

Except Americans didn’t bother.  Most just stay at the house.   

Of course there are always exceptions.

Philip Sexton of Goldsboro, N.C. used to work 56 to 67 hours a week.  Today he only puts in 40, then comes home to cut the grass, runs to church to finish extra business, and visits his 82 year old mother.

But for the rest of us, we’d rather lie around and click to The Biggest Loser.

Men sit an additional 32 minutes a day longer in front of the TV than women—three hours, forty-five minutes in total.  Women sit less because they are busy doing chores, like housework, childcare, and taking care of the elderly.

But hey, don’t women usually get the job done?               

They do.

And then they get tired and earn the nap.