Workers around the world save an average of 72 minutes a day when working from home, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found.

American workers, however, do not save as much time as their Chinese, Japanese or Indian counterparts. Those workers save 102, 100 and 99 minutes, respectively, on average each day. Americans save an average of 55 minutes daily—the fewest of any country in the survey, except for Poland (54) and Serbia (51).

The study also found that, on average, 40 percent of that saved time goes to extra work on primary and secondary jobs, 34 percent goes to leisure, and 11 percent goes to caregiving activities. Malaysians, Singaporeans and Taiwanese spent 53 percent of that extra time on their primary or secondary jobs, compared to 42 percent of Americans. Germans spent 46 percent of their saved time on leisure, as did 45 percent of Austrians. Americans spent 35 percent of that saved time on leisure.  

Serbians spent 17 percent of that extra time on caregiving, the largest amount of the countries surveyed. Singaporeans and South Korans spent the fewest amount of extra time on caregiving, 6 percent. Americans spent 8 percent of their extra time on caregiving, the same as Germans and Taiwanese.

The study was based on a survey, The Global Survey of Working Arrangements, conducted in 15 countries in late July and early August, and in an overlapping set of 25 countries in late January and early February 2022.