Flexible work schedules: a rapidly growing trend.

In May 1997, more than 27 percent of all full-time wage and salary workers in the United States - about 25 million - had flexible work schedules that allowed them to vary the time they began or ended work. The proportion of workers with such schedules was up sharply from the 15 percent recorded when the data were last collected in May 1991 and from the 12.5 percent tallied in 1985. The increase in flexible work schedules was widespread across demographic groups, occupations, and industries, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Highlights from the 1997 BLS survey show that

* private-sector employees were more likely to have flexible work hours than those in the public sector (28.8 versus 21.7 percent), and

* men were more likely to be working flexible schedules than women (28.7 percent and 26.2 percent, respectively).

Public-Private and Occupational Gaps

In the public sector, where government employment is considered comparable to service-producing industries, flexible schedules, as shown in Exhibit 1, were reported by 21.7 percent of the employees and were most commonly found among federal government workers - 34.5 percent. In contrast, 29.4 percent of state employees had flexible schedules and 13.1 percent of local government employees (which includes public elementary and secondary schools) worked flextime.

Exhibit 2 FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES AND SHIFT WORK OF FULL-TIME WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS BY SEX, RACE, AND HISPANIC ORIGIN MAY, SELECTED YEARS, 1985-97 Percent with flexible Percent with Characteristics schedules alternate shifts May May May May May May 1985 1991 1997 1985 1991 1997 Sex Total, 16 years and over 12.4 15.1 27.6 15.9 17.8 16.8 Men 13.1 15.5 28.7 17.8 20.1 19.1 Women 11.3 14.5 26.2 15.0 14.6 15.7 Race and Hispanic origin White 12.8 15.5 28.7 15.3 17.1 16.1 Black 9.1 12.1 20.1 19.9 23.3 20.9 Hispanic origin 8.9 10.6 18.4 15.5 19.1 16.0 NOTE: Data for May 1997 are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years because the 1997 data incorporate 1990 census-based population controls and the effects of a major redesign of the Current Population Survey introduced in January 1994. Data exclude the incorporated and unincorporated self-employed. Among private-sector employees, the proportion of workers with flexible schedules was much higher in service-producing industries (31.7 percent) than in goods-producing industries (23.3 percent).

In the total private and public full-time work force, the...