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‘Underworked Americans’ not counted by BLS

June 23, 2009 on 12:38 pm | In All categories, economy/job market | No Comments

A very interesting commentary in The Economist magazine points out a troubling trend. While U.S. adults often complain about their excessive time-consuming work demands, U.S. children have more cushy schedules than most others in the world.

The data includes fewer school days (German kids spend 20 more days in school per year, South Koreans get over a month more) per year and fewer hours per week in school. The long summer vacation is also unusual compared with schools in other countries, and it commonly yields “summer learning loss.”

The findings suggest that American kids grow up with a competitive disadvantage for succeeding in the global marketplace once they become adult workers. The full commentary is worth reading.

On the lighter side, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is also not tracking another possible set of underworked Americans: poets. That’s the suggestion playwright John Patrick Shanley recently made to graduates at the College of Mt. St. Vincent:

“Not to bring up something upsetting, but when you leave here today, you may go through a period of unemployment. My suggestion is this: Enjoy the unemployment. Have a second cup of coffee. Go to the park. Read Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman loved being unemployed. I don’t believe he ever did a day’s work in his life. As you may know, he was a poet. If a lot of time goes by and you continue to be unemployed, you may want to consider announcing to all appropriate parties that you have become a poet.”