Unemployment and Free Time Patterns By Gender

Within the EU, the post-recession context is characterised by higher levels of unemployment than in the pre-crisis period, and by an important expansion of underemployment. These effects may constitute an important shift in free time and time autonomy among working age people, with consequences for their well-being, leisure patterns, and their ability to return to employment. However, there are only a few studies that link unemployment and free time. These studies show an important gender bias, since unemployed women tend to increase their time in unpaid household work, thereby limiting their possibilities of return to the labour market, as opposed to markedly increasing their leisure time. Unemployed men, on the other hand, tend to increase their study time. While devoting time to studying also does not increase leisure time, it certainly has an important impact on men’s subsequent employability and chances of returning to the labour market. Time use studies can also inform us about important differences within genders regarding other variables such as education or income.  Using the Multinational Time Use Study data we will do a comparative analysis of how unemployed and underemployed men and women spend their increased free time in some European countries. We will study differences both between and within genders.