Demographic and Socioeconomic Determinants of Time Use for Household Activities: a Study in Kolfe Keranyo Sub city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Household activities constitute an important dimension of time use that have previously received little attention in labor force analysis. Most labor force analysis have looked only at paid labor, ignoring the fact that individuals often devote much of their time and labor in household activities. This seriously underestimates the labor and time spent on unpaid labor such as house work and child care. Existing standard of living measurements and household economic models often do not take into account this important dimension. The objective of this paper is to examine some of the demographic and socio- economic factors of time use for household in a residential neighborhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study uses a cross-sectional survey data conducted on 696 randomly selected individuals in the age group 15 - 65 in Kolfe Keranyo sub city, Addis Ababa, in 2013. The average minutes of domestic work shows strong gender bias with an average men participation amounting to only 65.6 minutes as compared to women participation of 476.6 minutes per reference day. This study serves as a baseline in quantifying women length of time spent for household activities that are presently invisible in estimation of national accounts. In addition, through this study we hope to inspire other researchers to utilize the time use enormous data that remain largely untouched and cover time allocated to leisurely activities and time spent for caring to others.