Time Tracking Statistics (2025): How Teams Spend Time at Work

In 2025, how we measure productivity has shifted just as much as how we work. Time tracking statistics have become a critical benchmark for evaluating performance and optimizing team output. This stems from the rise of remote and hybrid teams, increasing operational costs, and pressure for accountability. 

For modern leaders, understanding where time goes isn’t just helpful — it’s essential for driving smarter decisions, reducing waste, and sustaining productivity at scale. Understanding how time is spent at work is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have for making smarter decisions, improving efficiency, and staying competitive.

Here are a few examples:

• Remote and Hybrid teams are more productive. The Hubstaff Workstyle Report found that remote and hybrid teams spend more than half their time on focused work (uninterrupted sessions of over 30 minutes) than in-office teams at 46%. This shows that remote and hybrid setups maintain or even improve deep work compared to fully in-office models.
  
  

• Employees are spending too much time in meetings. Employees spend 13% of their 40-hour workweek sitting in meetings. Cutting just 5 minutes from each meeting returns an hour weekly per person. For a 50-person team, that's 50 hours saved weekly.
  
  

• Manual timesheets are still a preferred time tracking method. 47% of business owners age 50 or older still prefer that their employees use paper timesheets for time tracking.

As you can see, the narrative around time tracking is still taking shape. Uncertainty surrounding time tracking doesn't stop with these statistics. That's why we've created this guide to compile accurate findings from Hubstaff's aggregated time tracking data and research from reputable external sources. 

In this guide, we’ll explore some jarring time tracking statistics and also touch on:

• Creating a data-driven workflow

• Benchmarking time and productivity data against industry standards 

• How teams spend their time in today's work environment

Let’s begin.

Did you know that 43% of hourly team members surveyed admit to committing time theft? 

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, time theft occurs when an employee accepts pay for work they didn't actually do. These employees might be punching out early, clocking in late, or exploiting buddy punching.

The amount of time stolen can vary as well: 

• Most employees add between 11 and 20 minutes to their shifts

• 21% extend their work hours by 30 minutes to an hour

• Some log well over two extra hours each week.
  

It’s also important to note that not all time theft occurs when a team member clocks in or out. Some commit time theft by wasting time during the workday.

The most popular ways people track the time they didn't work are:

• Performing personal activities during work hours

• Taking too many breaks for leisure time

• Making calls for personal reasons

• Preparing food

• Instant messaging

In some cases, employees steal more than five hours per week. However, that's far from the only way companies lose money.

85% of leaders say remote and hybrid teams are just as productive — but that's not the real productivity challenge. 

According to Hubstaff's Workstyle Report, proximity has little to do with performance. Leaders overwhelmingly agree that distributed teams deliver comparable (or even superior) results when supported with clear goals and the right systems.

But the real issue lies beneath the surface:

• Employees spend just 49% of their time on core, high-impact tasks,

• The other half of employee time is spent on non-core activities (meetings, emails, admin work, etc.) or outright distractions.

These numbers reveal that the productivity problem isn't remote work. Scattered workflows, shallow work, and outdated management strategies are the real culprits that interrupt real output.

Whether you work 30 or 50 hours a week, chances are you aren't always working on job-related tasks. A recent study on working hours and time management skills found that the average worker is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes daily.

Another study shows that team members spendjust 27% of the workday on skill-based tasks, not due to lack of high-impact work.

What's surprising is that these time-wasting activities don't even begin to scratch the surface of employee productivity issues.

These findings suggest that the true productivity challenge isn't limited to obvious time-wasters. Instead, it's rooted in fragmented workflows, constant context-switching, and a lack of deep work time, largely invisible factors without the correct data.

Hybrid teams recorded the highest average focus time at 57%, compared to 52% for remote teams and only 46% for in-office teams. This underscores how structured flexibility fosters deeper work focus.

Hubstaff's internal data shows teams spend 49% of weekly hours on core tasks, 43% on non-core activities, and only 8% on unproductive work, challenging outdated assumptions. 

The average person now spends over 10 hours online daily, with more than 2 hours and 23 minutes dedicated to social media.

This behavior spills into the workplace:

• 21 hours per week are spent on non-work-related internet activities

• Nearly 2 hours a day go to social media during work hours

• 81% of employees admit to using social media on the clock

• Average of 52 minutes of lost productivity per employee per day

According to a NetQuote survey, workers waste most of their time on these social media websites:

• YouTube (16.98 days annually)

• Facebook (14.70 days annually)

• Instagram (8.72 days annually)

• Twitter (5.91 days annually)

Salary.com polled 3200 people to find how many hours employees spend on non-work-related internet activities a week. The results were surprising:

• 39% - An hour or less per week on non-work-related items

• 29% - 2 hours per week

• 21% - Up to 5 hours

• 3% - 10 or more hours

Meetings remain one of the most overlooked productivity drains, and traditional time tracking software rarely effectively accounts for them. 

According to Asana's 2024 Anatomy of Work Report, statistics on meeting time show an average of 15.5 hours allocated weekly, translating to over 800 hours per year. For many knowledge workers, that's nearly one-third of their workweek.

While some meetings are essential for collaboration, the numbers suggest a problem:

• 32% of employees say they spend more time in unnecessary meetings than they did last year

• 2 in 3 workers feel that excessive meetings prevent them from having a real impact at work

• 35% admit to attending meetings they already know will be unproductive

Over 71% of employees multitask during meetings, often checking email or working on other tasks (Microsoft Work Trend Index 2022)

Asana coined the term "work about work" to describe time to discuss work. They've found that they need more time, specifically for independent tasks. No wonder teams have started to implement a no-meeting day each week.

ZeroBounce's 2025 Email Statistics Report highlights that 35% of employees spend five hours managing their inboxes each day. That doesn't even include the time they spend crafting and responding to emails.

That's why it's no surprise that emails can cost companies up to $50,000 per employee. Fortunately, better communication tools are available on the market.

When companies switch to using tools like Slack, the results speak for themselves: 

• Internal email usage decreases roughly 32%

• Meetings drop about 23%

• Productivity increases by up to 47%. 

• Nearly 8 in 10 companies report a positive shift in team culture.

Many U.S. workers spend close to an hour a day commuting. The toll—on both time and energy—is even greater in central traffic states like California. While the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) clarifies that time spent traveling between job sites is billable, it excludes typical home-to-work commutes.

Accurate time tracking is essential for field service workers. That's why many businesses now use geofencing software to track time spent on location, ensuring employees are paid for actual work—not just clock-ins.

The OECD defines hours worked as "the total number of hours worked per year divided by the average number of people in employment per year."

By this definition, the average American works 34.6 hours a week. This might not sound imposing initially, but not all countries are accustomed to the 40-hour workweek. The United States has 1765 working hours per person in total hours worked among all OECD countries.

The near-40-hour American workweek is longer than in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and all OECD countries.

Imagine how small business owners feel if a 39-hour workweek is above average. A survey of U.S. small business owners and freelancers found:

• They work an average of 50 hours per week when launching their ventures

• 27% routinely clocked in 60‑hour-plus weeks

• 16% exceeded 70 hours

In Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reports that the average business owner works 54 hours per week. This is equivalent to an eight‑day workweek, but staffing shortages have pushed some up to 59 hours. 

89% of small business owners regularly work weekends, and even vacation time suffers accordingly, as only 57% of small business owners take vacations. Even among those who do, 67% check in to work at least once a day during their time off.

49% of employees will look for a new job after experiencing two payroll issues. This lack of patience is understandable, considering that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

It's important to get payroll right, but it's time-consuming. An NSBA survey found that payroll taxes were ranked as the most burdensome administrative task for small businesses.

For global teams, you must also factor in different payroll laws across different states, countries, and territories. In these instances, human resources managers for distributed teams spend even more time on payroll per pay period.

Fortunately, tools like Hubstaff allow you topay each team member in their preferred currency using their preferred payment tool directly from the Hubstaff app.

With remote work increasing and companies outsourcing for efficiency, visibility is mission-critical. Time tracking adoption is surging — and showing no signs of slowing down.

The time tracking software market is expected to grow from $3.38B in 2024 to $11.48B by 2032, at a 16.5% CAGR. That's a clear signal: now is the time to invest in tools that drive clarity, productivity, and performance.

What's Driving Adoption? Here's a breakdown:

• Work visibility. Understand exactly how time is spent (on tasks, projects, apps, etc.) to allocate work more effectively.

• Remote workforce management. Support distributed and hybrid teams with real-time data, without micromanagement.

• Project forecasting. Budget, allocate resources, and set realistic delivery timelines using historical time data.

• Process automation. Replace manual time logs with automated tracking to save time and reduce errors.

Platforms like Hubstaff are raising the bar. With features like the Insights add-on, you get detailed metrics on focus time, unproductive hours, core vs. non-core work, and more. This makes it easier to:

• Reward top performers

• Spot inefficiencies

• Identify false activity or security issues

• Continuously improve team workflows

In short: less guesswork, more growth.

According to the 2025 World Happiness Report, Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the eighth year. The rest of the Scandinavian countries follow close behind.  

The freedom to make choices, limited pollution, and overall sense of community are big reasons the region continues to find success and a high quality of life. One of the more overlooked reasons is an emphasis on a healthy work-life balance.

Scandinavians work fewer hours than American workers yearly, but some still earn comparable monthly salaries. Take a look at a country like Iceland. They rank in the bottom 10 of the OECD in hours worked but second in average wages (trailing only the US).

Denmark works less than any country other than Germany, but they still ranks in the top six in the OECD for monthly earnings.

So, how can Scandinavian countries work less but still produce enough to warrant comparable monthly wages? Studies have shown that decreased hours can lead to increased productivity.

Another contributing factor is embracing modern technology to streamline efficiency.