The allocation of time and remote work

Motivated by large structural shifts in the nature of work since 2020, this paper studies the allocation of time among workers across jobs that vary in their remote intensity. Drawing on the American Time Use Survey between 2018 and 2024, I document three main results. First, time allocated to leisure increased and to work decreased among more remote jobs with little change in home production, shopping, or childcare. These results are robust to alternative longitudinal data from the Gallup Workplace Panel between 2019 and 2025. Time allocated to commuting declined, but only accounts for a small portion of the declines in labor supply. Second, these changes were concentrated among males, singles, and those without children. Third, these declines in labor supply are not associated with productivity declines; sectors with greater remote work intensity exhibited greater productivity growth. I subsequently build and estimate an augmented Roy model, showing that sorting of more productive workers into higher productivity industries accounts for the increase in productivity growth.