Background
USDA is one of the pioneers in time use data collection and
research. In the 1920s and 1930s, USDA's Bureau of Home Economics
sponsored studies of homemakers' use of time on farms and in towns,
conducted by home economists at State experiment stations. At USDA
headquarters, mail surveys were conducted of alumnae of women's
colleges. This research was influenced by the Country Life
movement's desire to apply industrial and home economics research
and objectives to agriculture and rural life, as well as a desire
to apply industrial efficiency models to home production.
Findings from this period include the following:
- About 50 percent of homemaking time was spent on providing
food
- Running water and electricity made the greatest difference in
reducing time spent on housework
- The number of young children, not the size of household, had
the most effect on the number of hours spent in homemaking
activities
For more information, see the presentation, USDA's Historical Studies of the Use of Time by
Homemakers 
.
Starting in 1984, ERS has collected time use data in USDA's Agricultural
Resource Management Survey (ARMS). Part of the ERS mission is
to provide economic statistics about the financial performance of
U.S. farms. Since the majority of labor on farms is not paid a wage
or salary, a cost must be imputed to these hours in constructing
economic statistics. In particular, a cost for unpaid labor is
imputed for estimates of commodity cost of production,
productivity, and returns to owner's equity in farm capital.
Traditionally, the survey has collected information on hours
worked by asking respondents to recall this information for four
quarters in the prior calendar year. Although the recall period is
long, the results from this data collection method are generally
credible and superior to previous methods. To help validate the
quality of the data on work hours reported, the time use question
in the 2004 ARMS survey instrument was modified to collect
additional time use categories that required respondents to account
for a 24-hour day. See Decoupled
Payments in a Changing Policy Setting for estimates using ARMS
time use data.