David Kuack
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In June the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of its 2010 American Time Use Survey. The survey data included the average amount of time per day in 2010 that individuals worked, did household activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities.
Last year 82 percent of employed persons worked on an average weekday, compared with 35 percent on an average weekend day. Employed persons worked an average of 7.5 hours on the days they worked. More hours were worked, on average, on weekdays (7.9 hours) compared to weekend days (5.5 hours).
On an average day, 84 percent of women and 67 percent of men spent some time doing household activities including housework, lawn care, cooking, or financial and other household management. On the days that they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.1 hours.
Leisure activities
On an average day, the American Time Use Survey found nearly everyone age 15 and over engaged in some sort of leisure activity, such as watching TV, socializing or exercising. Of those who engaged in leisure activities, men spent more time in these activities (5.8 hours) than did women (5.1 hours). Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.7 hours per day), accounting for about half of leisure time, on average, for those age 15 and over.
Some of this leisure time is also being spent in the garden. According to the National Gardening Association’s 2011 National Gardening Survey, consumers spent nearly $3 billion for the second year in a row on food gardening in 2010 while sales for other types of lawn and garden activities saw a small decline.
“It is gratifying to see that people are directly connecting to their food source as well as taking personal responsibility for their outdoor environments,” said Mike Metallo, NGA president. “If one good thing came out of our recession woes, it’s that many people have reconnected with the land and are growing their own vegetables, fruit, berries and herbs.”
If you aren’t growing/selling vegetables, herbs, berries and fruit trees, you are missing a sales opportunity.
David Kuack
dkuack@gie.net
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