We’ve been hearing plenty about workers doing overtime and spending more time in the office in bid to beat insecurities over their jobs – but this may not be the whole picture.

According to IBISWorld, a business forecaster, we actually have more leisure time than we enjoyed 11 years ago – so perhaps we’re not spending quite as much time as we think on work-related tasks. The average Aussie now has 78.1 hours of leisure time – an increase of 1.7 hours from 2001 – and the figure is expected to keep on rising hitting 78.4 hours a week by 2025.

Researchers say that there are a number of things contributing to this increase – workers looking to spend more time with their families, the growth in casual workers and part time jobs and baby boomers retiring are key. And when we’re not at work it seems our favourite activity to indulge in during our down time is sitting in front of the computer – which seems a bit too familiar to work for us! Close to 25 per cent of our spare time is spent doing just this – partly driven by the explosion of social media available.