Work-life balance

Time

Work-life balance

Achieving an appropriate work-life balance is vital to many in our community.

Time spent on work

This measure shows how Canberrans feel about their work life balance and whether we are spending about the right amount of time doing paid work. This is important because how we feel about our ability to balance our lives with our work can have a big impact on our oval levels of wellbeing.

Work life balance improved overall in the ACT between 2019 and 2022, with the proportion of Canberrans who reporting doing ‘about the right’ amount of work increasing from 51.5% in 2019 to 62.0% in 2022.

This improvement was driven by a decrease in the proportion of people with too little work. In late 2019, 22.6% of Canberrans reported not having as much paid work as they wanted, and this increased to 34.5% during the first COVID-19 lockdown. It has been declining since 2021, with 12.9% of Canberrans reporting they didn’t have as much paid work as they wanted in 2022.

2022-2023: Living well in the ACT region survey, unpublished data.

2019-2021: Living well in the ACT region: The changing wellbeing of Canberrans during 2020 and 2021.

Line graph of percentage of respondents’ feelings about time spent on paid work in the ACT, between 2019 and 2023.

In 2022, 62% reported about right time doing paid work compared to 61.6% in 2021.

In 2022, 25.1% reported too much time doing paid work compared to 21.8% in 2021.

In 2022, 12.9% reported too little time doing paid work compared to 16.6% in 2021.

The Living Well in the ACT Region survey, conducted by the University of Canberra, aims to measure, track and understand the wellbeing of adult residents living in the Australian Capital Territory region of Australia. It examines factors known to affect wellbeing at the individual, household, community and regional level.

When generating data for the ACT, statistical weighting is used to address differences between the sample of people who respond to the survey, and the characteristics of the ACT adult population. Differences between groups are reported when there is a statistically significant difference based on 95% confidence intervals or other tests of significance.

Data are produced from this survey for different groups of people in the ACT. The ‘overall response’ category represents responses at the ACT population level. Differences between groups are reported when there is a statistically significant difference based on 95% confidence intervals or other tests of significance.

Care is needed when interpreting the differences in findings between groups as the descriptive statistics published here show where there are differences in wellbeing, but not what has caused those differences in wellbeing.

The University of Canberra has been conducting the survey since 2019. As of mid-2023, the survey had been conducted 6 times. Not all questions have been measured each time the survey has been conducted.

There have been no changes in measure design, analysis or reporting of this measure since it was first included in the survey.

Data for people with disability can only be compared between 2022 and 2023 due to a change in the way disability was defined and measured in the survey, to better reflect international best practice.

Further information about the survey can be found at Living Well in the ACT Region or by contacting Professor Jacki Schirmer at the University of Canberra.