american minute.

When do Americans work?

On an average weekday, the share of Americans working peaks at 10:45 AM, when 40.7% of people age 15 and older (about 102.4 million) are working. On weekends it peaks at 11:45 AM (9.3%). Averaged over all days, Americans spend 3 hr 17 min a day working.

See working minute by minute ↗

12 AM6 AM12 PM6 PM12 AM
Share of Americans working, by local time. Solid: weekdays. Dashed: weekends. Scale: 0–40.7%.

Working by hour

Share and number of Americans working at the top of each hour.

TimeWeekdaysPeopleWeekendsPeople
12 AM2.0%5.1 million1.5%3.7 million
1 AM1.7%4.2 million1.2%3.0 million
2 AM1.4%3.4 million1.0%2.6 million
3 AM1.3%3.3 million1.0%2.5 million
4 AM2.0%5.1 million1.4%3.4 million
5 AM3.2%7.9 million1.7%4.2 million
6 AM6.9%17.3 million2.6%6.5 million
7 AM15.2%38.3 million4.1%10.3 million
8 AM28.2%71.0 million5.8%14.7 million
9 AM36.0%90.4 million7.4%18.5 million
10 AM38.3%96.3 million8.3%21.0 million
11 AM38.7%97.4 million8.9%22.4 million
12 PM29.1%73.1 million8.2%20.5 million
1 PM34.7%87.1 million8.4%21.2 million
2 PM37.2%93.6 million8.4%21.1 million
3 PM35.1%88.2 million8.1%20.3 million
4 PM29.2%73.5 million7.2%18.0 million
5 PM18.1%45.6 million6.2%15.6 million
6 PM10.6%26.6 million5.2%13.0 million
7 PM7.8%19.6 million4.6%11.5 million
8 PM6.5%16.2 million4.0%10.2 million
9 PM5.5%13.9 million3.5%8.7 million
10 PM4.2%10.6 million2.8%7.1 million
11 PM3.0%7.5 million2.1%5.3 million

What it includes

Average time per weekday, for the activities in this group that take the most time.

  • Work, main job: 3 hr 58 min a day
  • Work, other job(s): 5 min a day
  • Job search activities: 2 min a day

More

About these numbers

Estimates come from all 258,954 diaries in the American Time Use Survey (Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau), 2003–2025, weighted to the U.S. civilian population age 15 and older and pooled across years. Times are local clock time. Counts are people on an average day of that type, not a live count. Weekdays are Monday–Friday. How the estimates work.