Who's In The Office? The American Workday In One Graph
by QUOCTRUNG BUI
Researchers often look at the number of hours worked, but rarely do they ask the question ofwhen. Fortunately, the government conducts an annual study called the American Time Use Survey that tracks how people spend their days.
The interactive graph below shows the share of workers who say they're working in a given hour, grouped by occupation. Play with the different job categories to see how the average workdays differ from one another.
The conventional workday remains pretty strong. The majority of people are at work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a small break in the middle of the day for lunch.
The graph shows that construction workers take the lunch hour the most seriously, with the largest drop in workers at noon (as measured from peak to midday trough).
Not surprisingly, servers and cooks have a schedule that's essentially the opposite of all other occupations. Their hours peak during lunch and hold steady well into the evening.
The only occupation where a large share of workers are up at 3 a.m. is protective services(like police officers, firefighters and private detectives). Even among blue collar workers, working at 3 a.m. is a relatively rare occurrence.
Still, Americans work more night and weekend hours than people in other advanced economies, according to Dan Hamermesh and Elena Stancanelli's forthcoming paper. They found that about 27 percent of Americans have worked between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. at least once a week, compared with 19 percent in the U.K. and 13 percent in Germany.
But there are limits to the data. For white collar work, the line between life and work can be blurred. Tasks like late-night emails and dinners with clients throw a wrench into how work hours are measured overall.
Even as Apple seeks out growth by delving into payments and watches, Apple's core business continues to boom on the back of its revving iPhone engine.
iPhone: Apple(AAPL, Tech30) sold 39.3 million iPhones in the past quarter, which included nearly two weeks of sales for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The new iPhones went on sale in the United States and a handful of other countries on Sept. 19.
IPhone sales beat most Wall Street analysts' expectations and were up 16% from a year ago.
Though Apple always posts some big numbers in the quarter in which it releases its new products -- particularly new iPhones -- Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he thinks the iPhone can continue to grow in future quarters.
"There's a fairly large opportunity in people buying their first iPhone ever," Cook said on a conference call with investors. "I've never felt so great after a launch before."
Mac: Most surprisingly, Apple sold a record 5.5 million Macintosh computers, up a remarkable 21% from the same quarter in 2013. As overall personal computer sales continue to shrink, Apple now has its largest share of the PC market since 1995.
"The back to school season voted and the Mac won," Cook said. "If you went to a lot of college campuses, you'd see a lot of new MacBooks."
iPad: Apple also sold 12.3 million iPads, which was the latest disappointing result in a series of bad quarters for Apple's tablet.IPad sales were down 13% from last year, the third straight quarter of shrinking iPad demand and the smallest number of iPad sales in more than two years.
Analysts had predicted Apple would sell about 13 million of its tablets.
Cook noted that people are holding onto their iPads longer than they hang onto their smartphones. He also said Apple is losing some potential iPad customers to Macs and iPhones -- particularly after Apple launched iPhones with bigger screens in September.
But Cook said he was undeterred and still confident that Apple can grow its iPad sales, noting that Apple updated its lineup last week. Apple introduced a thinner iPad Air 2 and a new iPad mini.
"I view it as a speed bump -- not a huge issue," Cook said. "That said, we want to grow. We don't like negative numbers on these things."
Other products: Apple said it sold 2.6 million iPods, down 24% from a year ago.
As iPod sales continue to slide, Apple announced that it would create an "other products" category, which will include iPods, Apple TVs and the upcoming Apple Watch, which is expected to go on sale early next year.
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Asked by analysts why the Apple Watch would get lumped into a category with Apple's not-so-great sellers, Cook said it's because he didn't want to divulge too much information about its new iGizmo.
"I'm not anxious to report a lot of numbers on the Watch, because our competitors are looking for it," he said.
But it's also possible that Apple is unsure of how much demand there will be for what is essentially a very expensive iPhone accessory. The Apple Watch may loom in the "hobby" category that the Apple TV continues to occupy until Apple finds the right price point and features for its smartwatch.
Overall: Overall, Apple's sales rose 12.4% to $42.1 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter. That marked the largest growth in Apple's revenue in nearly two years, and it topped analysts' forecasts of $39.9 billion.
The Cupertino, Calif., based company said its net income rose to $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per share in Apple's fiscal fourth quarter, up 12.7% from a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of $1.31 per share.
Apple ended the quarter with more than $155 billion in cash.
Shares of Apple rose more than 1% after hours.
In the current quarter, Apple said it expects to post sales of between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion, mostly above Wall Street's forecasts.
Highlights In the latest disappointment out of the housing sector, existing home sales fell back 1.8 percent in August to a lower-than-expected annual rate of 5.05 million vs the Econoday consensus for 5.18 million. Year-on-year, sales are down 5.3 percent, a bit more steep than minus 4.5 percent in the prior month.
Limited supply has been a major factor holding down sales with supply on the market falling 40,000 homes in the month to 2.31 million. Supply relative to sales, at 5.5 months, held unchanged reflecting August's sales dip.
Prices have been flat the last six months, down 0.8 percent in August to a median $219,800. Year-on-year, the median is little changed at plus 4.8 percent.
Looking at regional sales data, August's weakness was centered in the West, down 6.0 percent, followed by the largest housing region which is the South, down 4.2 percent. The Northeast, which is the smallest region, shows a 4.7 percent gain with the Midwest up 2.5 percent.
Held back by the soft jobs market and a shortage of first-time buyers, housing remains a lagging sector for the economy. A lack of distressed sales on the market, at a recovery low of 8 percent in August's sales data, is a hidden factor holding back sales. Markets are showing little reaction to today's report. Watch for new home sales on the Econoday calendar on Wednesday.
Recent History Of This Indicator Existing home sales in July advanced 2.4 percent to an annualized pace of 5.15 million units. June rose a revised 2.4 percent to a marginally downwardly revised 5.03 million. July sales were down 4.3 percent on a year-ago basis. July's figure puts existing home sales back at the pace last seen in October 2013 before atypically adverse winter weather undercut sales. For the latest month, strength was in the single-family component which gained 2.7 percent to 4.55 million annualized. Condos were unchanged at 0.60 million. Supply on the market actually rose faster than sales-up 3.5 percent in July to 2.37 million units. Months' supply, however, was steady at 5.5 months.
Definition Existing home sales tally the number of previously constructed homes, condominiums and co-ops in which a sale closed during the month. Existing homes (also known as home resales) account for a larger share of the market than new homes and indicate housing market trends. (National Association of Realtors) Why Investors Care
Existing home sales reached a peak in mid-2005. Sales picked up during the recovery until a slower economy cut into sales in late 2013 and early 2014. But over much of the recovery, lift came from the Fed's quantitative easing to lower mortgage rates. Mortgage rate shown is rate on 30-year conventional mortgages. Data Source: Haver Analytics
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