Statistics Dept to launch time-use study

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 5

Statistics Dept to launch time-use study

PA Auckland The first comprehensive study into how New Zealanders spend their time will be piloted this year. The Statistics Department plans to survey a small part of New Zealand in September and, although the Government has not yet approved money for the survey, hopes to make it national in July, 1990. The survey, developed by the department and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, would be useful to many Government departments for policy-making purposes, said a senior manager of household surveys and social statistics, Mr Paul Brown. It would survey a national sample of people over the age of 15, with results expected by February, 1992. The study would concentrate on women’s unpaid work in the home, community and marae and would measure its nature, extent and economic contribution. The Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Shields, said the survey could be used to compare women’s unpaid work with that of their husbands and help determine what prevented women from taking decision-making roles, such as becoming members of local authorities. Mr Brown said the Social Welfare Department was interested in the time-use of elderly people, transport authorities would be keen to know how people travelled to and from work and the Labour Department would be interested in how the unemployed spent their time. The Ministry of Recreation and Sport asked New Zealanders in 1976 how they spent their leisure time, but did not look at women who worked in the home, the elderly or the unemployed.