Abstract
“Time” is often described as our most fundamental resource. We all have time to spend, and how we spend it will influence our wealth, welfare and happiness as well as that of persons close to us. How time is spent can be described by the types of activities carried out and by the length of time spent in them, as well as by the context in which they are done and their scheduling. Together “length” and “scheduling” represent the working time arrangements (WTAs) of a job, and a person's overall WTAs for a reference period is determined by the number of jobs held during that period as well as the WTAs for each of them. The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the methodological issues involved in developing statistics on WTAs in light of the tools and experiences already available. The two dimensions of WTAs, i.e., the “length” and “scheduling” of working time, together with information on their fixed or variable nature, can be combined in different ways to derive a vast number of different WTAs, some of which are described in this article. The advantages and problems of the standard data collection instruments for two complementary approaches to measuring the incidence of different WTAs are discussed, and the conclusions of two ILO commissioned reviews of national experiences are presented.
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