Online Time Use Survey (OTUS)- Wave 5 - AWARD

The OTUS (Online Time Use Survey) has been designed in response to decades of research and high-profile international reviews assessing the limitations of economic statistics in measuring a country's economic growth. For example, the report by Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi (2009) and the Independent Review of Economic Statistics in the UK (Bean, 2016) suggested shifting measurement systems away from economic production (for example, GDP) and towards measuring people's wellbeing instead.  

The OTUS was proposed as a preferred means of measuring productivity. Not only did it reframe productivity away from traditional economic production values, but it also had the potential to measure a range of unpaid work, unlike GDP. This included everything from looking after children and doing household chores to using digital platforms to organise holidays (as opposed to using travel agents).  

-To test if it is possible to measure time-use online in a representative and cost-effective manner. 

-To track the real-time changes occurring in an unprecedented period of behavioural change due to COVID

-To understand the extent of unpaid work in the economy and its distribution between demographics (for example, the gender gap).  

-To gauge whether time-use could be useful for more complete measures of paid work by incorporating aspects of gig-economy (for example delivery or taxi services such as Deliveroo and Uber) and sharing economy (for example online markets such as Ebay and Airbnb). 

-To understand the feasibility of collecting information on device use and related measures such as screen-time, as well as how digital service provision is changing people's habits and who is benefitting from them. 

The OTUS consists of an online diary tool and a demographic questionnaire. The diary tool is filled out online, and respondents are asked to fill out a diary for one weekday and one weekend day. The diary tool records 79 different activities people spend time on, as well as other measurements such as their enjoyment, device use, partial location, and wider caring responsibilities. The demographic questionnaire is completed at any time alongside the diary tool, and records data about the respondents such as sex, ethnicity and age, as well as measuring people's subjective well-being, such as their happiness, life satisfaction and anxiety. 

ONS is looking for a survey agency to administer at least one wave (wave 5) with the possibility of two additional waves if funding becomes available (waves 6 & 7) of the OTUS on ONS' behalf. Wave 5 will be for the period between mid-October 2022 to early December 2022, directing a representative sample of respondents to an online website diary instrument that's currently developed and hosted by another third-party provider.

The supplier will be responsible for providing a sample, making initial contact with individuals in the sample, following up non-responder...