Abstract : Sequence analysis is a useful tool for analysing time diary data, which not only
provide detailed information about frequency and duration of daily activities (e.g. paid
work, housework, leisure and rest), but also sequences of these activities. We conduct
optimal matching analyses (OM) on “workweek-grid” data from the UK Time Use
Survey (2000-01) and the French Time Use Survey (1998-99). Both surveys provide
detailed information about the scheduling of paid work over a week with 15-minute time
slots. A special case of Optimal matching (Dynamic Hamming Matching) with no
insertion and deletion operations is used in order to avoid altering the structure and length
of workweeks. This variant of OM is applied in two steps. First, we build a typology of
workdays by applying OM on the days people worked. Second, based on the typology of
workdays, we build a simplified workweek and then a secondary level of empirical
typology, i.e., the typology of workweeks. Results show the typologies of workdays and
workweeks are very similar in the two countries, but the proportions of these various
types of workdays and workweeks differ, especially for the case of part-time workweeks.