Not Working at Work: Loafing, Unemployment and Labor Productivity

We use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-12 to estimate time spent by workers in non-work while on the job. Non-work time is substantial and varies positively with the local unemployment rate.

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Michael C. Burda, PhD (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (IAB), Nürnberg)

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Michael Burda is Professor of Economics at School of Business and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His field of interest are Labor Economics, Macroeconomics and European Integration.

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We use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-12 to estimate time spent by workers in non-work while on the job. Non-work time is substantial and varies positively with the local unemployment rate. While average time spent by workers in non-work conditional on any positive amount rises with the unemployment rate, the fraction of workers reporting positive values varies pro-cyclically, declining in recessions. These results are consistent with a model in which heterogeneous workers are paid efficiency wages to refrain from loafing on the job. That model correctly predicts relationships of the incidence and conditional amounts of non-work with wage rates and measures of unemployment benefits in state data linked to the ATUS, and it is consistent with estimated occupational differences.