Time-Use of NEET Youth in Turkey
Time-Use Patterns: According to the Time Use Survey (2015), time use patterns of NEET men and women are entirely different. While NEET women’s time use on household production (unpaid work) activities on average almost matches up to the employment activities of non-NEET women and non-NEET men, NEET men spend more of their time on leisure and sleep. Hence young women who have NEET status, are not necessarily idle – most of the time they are engaged in household chores or unpaid care work. A woman’s educational attainment (more than household wealth or her husband’s educational level) is a determinant of whether she spends most of her time on household chores.
Since NEET youth are not engaged with education or employment activities it is worthwhile to see how they spend their time instead. While they may not be engaged with market production and education activities, they may indeed be engaged in household production activities.
Overall, NEET youth spend more time in leisure, household and family care, personal care and sleep compared to non-NEET youth (See Figure 13). NEET youth spend around 4 hours more per day in household and family care activities including activities like cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes, taking care of children or incapacitated adults (see Annex Table 5). Hence it seems that NEET youth indeed participate in household production activities significantly more compared to the non-NEET youth. Yet time spent in household and family care is high mostly among NEET women, and NEET men display a very different time use pattern which will be explored in the next section. On an average weekday, NEET youth spend more time on average in sleeping, personal care as well as leisure activities. Non-NEET youth, on the other hand, spend more time in employment, studying and travelling (including unspecified time use).
The difference in NEET and non-NEET youth in their leisure time is due to NEET youth spending more time in voluntary work and meetings, social life and entertainment and also mass media (see Annex Table 5).
However, the time use picture is completely different for NEET women and men in Turkey: While NEET women spend most of their time on unpaid care and household responsibilities, NEET men are more likely to spend their time with leisure. The difference between time spent in household and family care by NEET youth women and men shows that women are not ‘idle’ and are participating in household production activities as opposed to most NEET men (See Figure 14). NEET women spend on average around 7 hours doing household chores as opposed to around only 1 hour spent by NEET men.
While NEET women’s time use on household production (unpaid work) activities on average almost matches up to the employment activities of non- NEET women and non-NEET men, NEET men spend more of their time on leisure and sleep. NEET women spend on average 7 hours in one of these activities while non-NEET women spend on average only around half an hour (38 minutes) more. However, NEET men do not participate in these activities as much as NEET women or non-NEET men do. On the contrary NEET men spend 2 and a half hours in total in employment, studying or being engaged in household and family care as opposed to 7.5 hours spent by non-NEET men (See Figure 14). On the other hand, NEET men spend more time in leisure activities or sleeping compared to non-NEET men as well as NEET women (see tables Annex Table 6 and Annex Table 7)
A woman’s educational attainment more than household wealth is a determinant of whether women spend their time on household chores. On average young NEET women with less than basic education spends around 7.5 hours in household and family care as opposed to around 4 hours spent by NEET women with a university degree (see Figure 15). Hence the difference reaches around 3 hours on average. In contrast, increasing levels of wealth creates only a small change for women in time spent doing household chores. NEET women living in the poorest households spend on average 7 hours doing household chores as opposed to 6.5 hours spent by women living in the richest households.
NEET men spend less time in household and family care when they have higher education levels as well. But the time spent has a smaller range (See
Figure 15). NEET men with less than basic education spend around 1 hour and 40 minutes doing household chores as opposed to NEET men with a university degree who spend on average around an hour. Time spent in household and family care is the smallest for NEET men living in richest households. However, the relationship is not linear as it was in the case with increasing levels of education.
⁴⁰ In the Time Use Survey 2015 questionnaire, “Study” includes three types of sub-categories “Unspecified study”, “School or university” and “Free time study”. Hence although NEET youth are not in school they may still be spending some time in “studying”. Regarding employment, there are two categories under the activity “Employment” which are “Working time in main and second job” and “Activities related to employment” which include sub-categories “Lunch break” and “Other or unspecified activities related to employment”. TUIK reports that the activity definitions are in line with HETUS (Harmonized European Time Use Surveys) Activity Coding List. In this list, the latter group “Other or unspecified activities related to employment” also includes activities connected with job seeking, e.g. calling at or visiting a labour office or agency, reading and replying to job advertisements, going to see the new employer. This is why NEET youth also seems to be engaged with employment related activities to a small extent. (HETUS Activity Coding List 2008: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3859598/5909673/KS-RA-08-014-EN.PDF/a745ca2e-7dc6- 48a9-a36c-000ad120380e)
This website (https://www.developmentanalytics.org/harnessing-the-power-of-youth) was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Development Analytics and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.