Labor department to estimate “home production” in economic reports

U.S. Labor Department statistics next year could include data on babysitting and changing light fixtures. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College in upstate New York recently produced a report commissioned by the Labor Department about measuring household work. The report was updated earlier this month by the Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau first released the report in February “with an expectation that a BLS consumption measure that includes home production will be forthcoming in 2025.”

What is “home production?” The report describes it as “nonmarket and nongovernmental services, such as do-it-yourself home repairs and childcare.” That definition could also include individuals’ work to care for elderly parents or grandparents. The report’s authors provided five general categories: cooking and cleaning, non-cooking housework, caring for household adults, active childcare, and “supervisory childcare.”

Does the government not already measure this? The Bureau of Labor Statistics has historically not measured households’ “production,” even though the report’s authors say it affects how those households purchase goods and services.

So, what exactly does this report do? The report provides “data sources and methods” for measuring “household production” and its economic effect.

For measuring work done inside the home, the report used data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2019 “American Time Use Survey.” That survey analyzed how individuals 15 years or older from separate households spent their time throughout a 24-hour day.

For work measured outside the home, it used the 2019 Early Childhood Program Participation report from the National Household Education Survey and the 2016 Health and Retirement Study from the University of Michigan. The authors wrote that using such data sources and methods allows for a “joint examination” of how much households spend and how much work they do for themselves.

Dig deeper: Read Daniel Darling’s column in WORLD Opinions about the value of motherhood and how many jobs a “stay-at-home mom” does throughout the day.