LATEBREAKER
Occupational
Working time variability, flexibility, and advance notice of work schedules among U.S. workers: Data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey Toni Alterman* Toni Alterman P. Timothy Bushnell Jia Li Abay Asfaw
Unpredictable work schedules are associated with poor health including depressive symptoms, psychological distress, poor sleep quality, and poor fatigue recovery. Unpredictable schedules are common among low wage workers, service workers, food workers and hourly retail workers when management tries to closely align staffing with demand. Many workers receive little advance notice of their work schedules, and their scheduled work hours and workdays may change substantially week to week. In 2021, questions about the predictability and flexibility of work schedules were added to the National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative survey on the health of non-institutionalized persons residing in the U.S. Among the 16,452 workers interviewed, 20% (95% CI 19.2, 20.8) reported that their work schedule was variable and 21.5% (95% CI 20.7, 22.3) said that it was difficult to change their work schedule. Of those whose work schedule was variable, close to half also received short notice (≤4 days) of their work schedule. Weighted national prevalences of schedule unpredictability and inflexibility will be presented by demographic characteristics, including occupation, and industry. Occupations with difficult-to-change work schedules included Education/Training and Library, Production, and Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations. The prevalence of jobs with a short notice of changes in work schedule differed significantly (p<0.05) by sex, race, education, and disability. Workers in Construction and Extraction (18.7%, 95% CI 15.4, 22.4), Personal Care and Services (18.6%, 95% CI 13.8, 24.1) and Transportation and Material Moving occupations (14.8%, 95% CI 12.5, 27.4) have among the highest rates of inflexible and less predictable work schedules. Understanding work schedule precarity is important as lawmakers have begun to introduce fair schedule legislation to provide workers with more predictable and flexible work schedules.