LANSING – According to the Project: Time Off report, The State of the American Vacation 2017, it appears that Americans might finally be starting to use their vacation time. For years, vacation time usage has been on the decline in the U.S., but the 2017 report shows some optimistic results.
In 2016, American workers took an average of 16.8 days off, compared to just 16.2 in 2015. While not a huge difference, it changes the downward trend that we had been seeing since 2000. From 1976 to 2000 U.S. workers averaged taking 20.3 vacation days annually.
While slightly more vacation time was taken in 2016, Americans left even more vacation time unused than in 2015. In 2016, 662 million vacation days were left on the table, which is four million more than in 2015. However, this could be attributed to the fact that employees are earning more time off in 2016 (22.6 days) than in 2015 (21.9 days). But the good news is that more employees were able to carry-over their unused time in 2016 rather than forfeiting it altogether. 206 million vacation days were forfeited in 2016 – an 8% decrease from last year.
To read the rest of Heather Nezich column, click on https://www.sbam.org/Resources/tabid/97/ArtMID/2980/ArticleID/2900/Are-Americans-finally-using-their-vacation-time.aspx
