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The three measures of experienced utility are strongly correlated. Net affect and the U-index
as well as net affect and episode satisfaction have a correlation coefficient of more than 0.7
(in absolute values). The U-index and episode satisfaction are also well correlated (coefficient
of -0.52). The correlation of self-reported general life satisfaction with the three measures of
experienced utility, however, is much weaker than that between the measures of experienced
utility (0.32 for net affect, -0.27 for the U-index, and 0.32 for episode satisfaction). This
suggests that the three measures of experienced utility, although not identical, are similar
representations of the same underlying psychological states, but that these measures also
capture something very different from that which drives people’s self-reported life
satisfaction.
Turning to how the employed and unemployed use their time during the day, we see that
work demands the largest share of time for the employed. The employed in our sample spend
almost 6 hours per day at work. Since only 79 percent of the employed in our sample report a
work episode on the previous day (while, for the rest, the previous day was a Sunday and/or a
day off work), the average time spent working if one worked on that day is 7 hours and 32
minutes. Commuting time, averaged over all employed in the sample, is 21 minutes on the
way to work and 19 minutes on the way back. The employed spend about one and a half
hours per day on meals, and about the same amount of time watching TV and doing
housework. Since the unemployed do not spend their time working, they have to allocate the
available time to other activities. As we have seen in Table 1 already, the unemployed sleep
almost one hour longer than the employed. The unemployed also spend almost twice as much
time as the employed on socializing (1:42), playing parlor and computer games (0:23),
watching TV (2:37), childcare (0:40), private trips (0:42), and housework (2:13).
Furthermore, the unemployed declared they spent 34 minutes, on average, on job searching.
Since only 26 percent of the unemployed reported having engaged in that activity at all, the
unemployed that actually spent some time searching for a job did so for about 2 hours and 11
minutes.
3.3 Comparing general life satisfaction with experienced utility
The most-commonly used indicator of subjective well-being is an assessment of general life
satisfaction. Studies that examined how unemployment affects how a person assesses his life
satisfaction have produced overwhelming evidence that the unemployed suffer from lower