Report says Americans are half as likely to be on vacation now as they were in the 80s, but why?

• An average of just 1.7% of American workers were on vacation in December, according to federal data. 
• The Washington Post analyzed vacation data over decades to find out why Americans take vacation less often than they used to.  
• Many workers have PTO, personal days, and sick days lumped into the same pool of time. 

Americans are about half as likely to be on vacation now as they were in the 1980s, according to an analysis of federal data by the Washington Post. 

In early 1980, an average of about 3.2% of the American labor force was on vacation at any given time, according to the Post. In December 2022, that rate fell to just 1.7%.