Distinguishing between work and leisure. “Work and leisure were clearly defined and easy to distinguish not so long ago. But with cell phones, wireless internet and mobile computing keeping us always tethered to the world, our work duties and personae are increasingly merging with our private, leisure lives. Not only do more people work at home, but it also seems that more people are becoming "amateur entrepreneurs", people who create content or services sometimes for profit, sometimes for fun. Technology has made it easier for everyone to Create.” – Jeff Owick The chart above shows the most popular leisure activities of the UK e.g.. Watching television, listening to music. These activities aren’t totally engaging of the person partaking therefore allow interruption of leisure time through electronic communication. Often merging leisure and work time togther.

Gardening Cooking Sport Hobbies Volunteering Collecting e.g. stamps etc. Music – festivals etc. Film/Television Categorising Leisure Time

Leisure time as a proportion of average life Leisure time consumes an almost averagely equal proportion of time across the multiple nations in this graph. Standing at almost a quarter for the majority of the nations it shows that leisure time holds significant importance in everyday people’s lives.

The recession and higher prices caused by rocketing overheads have both contributed to a second successive year of declining leisure spending. In 2009, the leisure industry will be worth approaching £70 billion, a 9% increase over 2004 but 1.5% lower than in The best-performing area of the industry during the past five years has been cultural leisure such as music concerts and festivals (+64.3%), theatre (+27.7%) and museums (+15.6%). Music concerts and festivals (+8.3%) has shown the strongest growth in the past year while, benefiting from strong inbound tourism, theatre (+4.2%) also performed well, as did museums and galleries (+4%). UK Leisure Industry: Generates over £200 billion of revenue a year, when accounting for direct contributions (£117 billion) and indirect contributions (£102 billion) Provides 2.6 million jobs, representing 9% of the workforce, employing more people than the Manufacturing, Transport, Construction or Financial Services sectors Female, young, low-skilled, and part-time workers – demographics underrepresented in other industries – benefit heavily from the Leisure Industry. 44% of management positions in the industry are held by women, and it employs more than one in five of all year olds (more than Manufacturing, Construction and Financial Services combined). 46% of the industry’s workforce holds part-time or flexible working contracts. Leisure as part of the wider economy