Time, Generation X and Volunteerism

Aaron Ausland, founding Editor of the Global Citizen Journal makes the case that folks don't volunteer more of their time when they have more time to volunteer. He also makes the case that each generation has unique patterns of volunteerism. Two posts from his blog make his case.

Aaron Ausland

Development Practitioner, Founding Editor of The Global Citizen Journal

Volunteerism and Unemployment: The Surprising Inverse Relationship

Posted: 8/9/11 04:01 PM ET

USA Today reported today that the number of volunteers in America dropped by 600,000 from last year, bringing the national volunteering rate down by a half a percentage point, to 26.3%. The data was from Volunteering In America, a government website that tracks and reports on -- what else? -- volunteering in America. Last week, we got the new jobs numbers out, and although they weren't as cringe-inducingly dismal as expected, they still mean we have an unemployment rate at 9.1% This got me thinking, if more of us are unemployed, then shouldn't we have more spare time to do other things, like volunteering in our communities? Volunteerism: it's not a function of spare time! For a number of reasons, I don't really like to track the unemployment rate, but rather the civilian labor force participation rate. This is a measure of everyone of working age that is either actively employed or seeking employment. It doesn't include students, retired people, stay-at-home parents, people in prisons, informal workers, or people who have given up looking for work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the current U.S. participation rate stands now at 63.9%. This is as low as it's been in the past 30 years. This means that more Americans (about 36% of us) are not working and not looking for work than anytime since the early 1980s. One might think that working-age Americans have more time on their hands than usual.

So, given that (1) there are a lot of Americans suffering in the current economy (2) both State and Federal governments are pulling back resources from social programs, and (3) it would appear that Americans have more time than usual to volunteer, shouldn't we expect to see rates of volunteerism up?

According to Volunteering In America, the national volunteer rate now stands at 26.3%. This is down from 28.8% in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In other words, there are over 2.5 million fewer Americans volunteering today than just six years ago. What's going on? Do people just volunteer less when they are unemployed?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that's exactly what's going on. In a report released earlier this year, between 2006 and 2010, employed people volunteered at a rate 6-7 percentage points more than unemployed people. So, we shouldn't be too surprised then that we see rates of volunteerism falling as unemployment rates increase.

If we were to graph unemployment rates and rates of volunteerism together, they'd make an "X", which reminds me, you should read my other post from today, "Generation X -- the heroes of volunteerism in America."

Aaron Ausland

Development Practitioner, Founding Editor of The Global Citizen Journal

Generation X: The Heroes of American Volunteerism?

Posted: 8/9/11 06:54 PM ET

Earlier today, I was wondering what mattered most in terms of rates of volunteerism in America: having spare time or spare money. I would have thought that time was the critical factor. Turns out I was wrong. A look at the data shows an inverse relationship between unemployment rates and volunteerism. You can read about that in my other post "Volunteering and Employment: the surprising inverse relationship."

I also got to wondering this morning if these changing rates of volunteerism look different for different age cohorts, given that a stinky economy affects each differently. So I grabbed some more data and played around with it using MetricMash. As expected, the rates of volunteerism among retired people are stunningly stable over the past decade. But if we look at who is volunteering less among the working-age population, the picture is really quite interesting.

The baby boomers, approaching retirement are volunteering less. The Millennials, striving to establish themselves in the workforce, are volunteering less. But, we of Generation X, in the prime of our working years, are volunteering more.

It seems that the Millennials are hit hardest by rising unemployment rates - they have the least experience. It seems the Boomers are also getting it a bit rough as some are induced to an early retirement - they cost the most to keep employed. But the Gen-Xers seem to be losing their jobs at a slightly slower rate than these - again, in the prime of their working years.

Now, we know that coupled with higher rates of unemployment, those who do have jobs are working longer hours than ever. Overtime is up among non-exempt workers, and hours are up among exempt workers. So, it would appear that the Gen-Xers are simultaneously working longer hours and volunteering more. Interesting indeed.