Work hard or hardly working? 57% of American workers admit to online shopping while at work.
We’ve all been there: bored at work, we Alt + Tab from a spreadsheet to something more fun, like buying new shoes or clicking through photos of Tahitian beaches. If that sounds familiar, it’s because you’re not alone, with roughly 140 million Americans confessing to online shopping at work (57%), totaling some 234 million hours a day browsing online, according to recent finder.com survey data.
How are we spending time at our desks?
Online browsers share the same two guilty pleasures while on the clock: online shopping and searching for our next vacation.
Of the 140 million Americans who shop the Internet each day from their work desks, 46% spend roughly half an hour online weekly looking for deals, with another 19% spending up from 30 minutes to an hour and 17% spending from one to two hours a week online shopping from the office. Interestingly, a whopping 1.4 million (1%) American adults spend 20-plus hours — or at least half the workweek — online shopping from their desks.
Time spent
% of people
0 to 30 minutes
46%
30 minutes to 1 hour
19%
1 hour to 2 hours
17%
2 hours to 5 hours
11%
5 hours to 10 hours
4%
10 hours to 20 hours
2%
20+ hours
1%
Who shops more at work: men or women?
Men (52%) are more likely than women (48%) to spend time shopping online while on the job. While women (50%) are more likely to spend up to 30 minutes a week shopping online than men (42%), men (21%) are more likely to spend from 30 minutes to an hour online than women (15%). Men are also three times as likely to spend from 10 to 20 hours online while at work: men (3%) versus women (1%).
Time spent
% of women
% of men
0 to 30 minutes
50%
42%
30 minutes to 1 hour
15%
21%
1 hour to 2 hours
17%
17%
2 hours to 5 hours
12%
11%
5 hours to 10 hours
4%
4%
10 hours to 20 hours
1%
3%
20+ hours
1%
1%
Gen Y loves online shopping at work
Gen Y is the most likely of the generations to spend time shopping during their 9-to-5, with 29% admitting to spending at least half an hour online. Another 14% admit to 30 minutes to an hour, while 12% admit to spending from one to two hours browsing online for items.
Across the generations, 33% of baby boomers, 57% of Gen X and 71% of Gen Y admit to online shopping.
Time spent
% of Baby boomers
% of Gen X
% of Gen Y
0 to 30 minutes
20%
27%
29%
30 minutes to 1 hour
5%
10%
14%
1 hour to 2 hours
3%
11%
12%
2 hours to 5 hours
4%
6%
9%
5 hours to 10 hours
0.4
2%
3%
10 hours to 20 hours
0.2%
0.48%
2%
20+ hours
0.2%
1%
1%
Vacation nation: Americans spend 180 million hours a day browsing destinations
What else are we looking at while putting in our hours? Anywhere else we’d rather be, of course! Some 55% of American adults admit to online browsing for a destination or holiday during work hours. That’s an estimated 135 million adults who spend time at work browsing for vacation.
Collectively, Americans spend an estimated 180 million hours a day browsing the Internet for vacay spots. Roughly 57% of us spend up to half an hour a week browsing holiday locations, with 16% spending from 30 minutes to an hour and 13% spending from an hour to two hours each week at work, dreaming of their ideal day-off destination.
Time spent
% of people
0 to 30 minutes
57%
30 minutes to 1 hour
16%
1 hour to 2 hours
13%
2 hours to 5 hours
8%
5 hours to 10 hours
4%
10 hours to 20 hours
1%
20+ hours
1%
Men spend more time than women looking for the ideal vacation spot
About 58% of working American men confess to shopping for a holiday or vacation spot while at work. Compare those guys with the 50% of women who say they do the same.
While women (60%) are more likely than men (54%) to spend up to half an hour looking for a travel destination while at work, men are more guilty than women of wasting 30 minutes or more narrowing down their next getaway.
Time spent
% of women
% of men
0 to 30 minutes
60%
54%
30 minutes to 1 hour
16%
17%
1 hour to 2 hours
12%
14%
2 hours to 5 hours
7%
8%
5 hours to 10 hours
3%
4%
10 hours to 20 hours
1%
1%
20+ hours
1%
1%
Data is from a June 2018 survey of 2,020 US adults commissioned by finder.com and conducted by global research provider Pureprofile.
Kelly Suzan Waggoner is editor-in-chief at Finder, where she works with a talented team of expert writers and editors focused on helping readers to save money, earn money and grow their wealth. She joined Finder in 2016 as an editor, germinating the site from money transfers to include the wide scope of personal finance.
Kelly has worked with publishers, magazines and nonprofits throughout New York City to develop best practices around editorial, SEO, plain language and accessibility, including Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, HauteLife Press and Queerty. She is quoted on such sites as Lifehacker and CertifiKid, and ghostwrote Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies, published by Wiley.
Kelly earned a BA in English from Russell Sage College and a Poynter ACES Certificate in Editing from Poynter News University. She is trained in digital and website accessibility and plain language, and is a member of ACES: The Society for Editing and the Center for Plain Language. Between projects, she toys with words, flips through style guides and fantasizes about the serial comma’s world domination.
Use finder’s interactive world map to learn about variations in beer prices globally. Find out where in the world you’d pay a whopping $11.60 for a pint of beer.
How likely would you be to recommend finder to a friend or colleague?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very UnlikelyExtremely Likely
Required
Thank you for your feedback.
Our goal is to create the best possible product, and your thoughts, ideas and suggestions play a major role in helping us identify opportunities to improve.
Advertiser Disclosure
finder.com is an independent comparison platform and information service that aims to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions. While we are independent, the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which finder.com receives compensation. We may receive compensation from our partners for placement of their products or services. We may also receive compensation if you click on certain links posted on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of product information, it doesn't influence our assessment of those products. Please don't interpret the order in which products appear on our Site as any endorsement or recommendation from us. finder.com compares a wide range of products, providers and services but we don't provide information on all available products, providers or services. Please appreciate that there may be other options available to you than the products, providers or services covered by our service.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
