--- description: One thing Americans are terrible at: using their time off. The average U.S. worker takes a week less vacation now than in 2000, and 55%... title: Why Don’t We Take Vacation? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Don't We Take Vacation? by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 30, 2016 12:20 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 30, 2016 12:20 PM CUT One thing Americans are terrible at: using their time off. The average U.S. worker takes a week less vacation now than in 2000, and 55% of workers decline to use all the paid time off their jobs offer. One way to ensure you don’t leave days on the table? Plan out your vacations in January. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389139/why-dont-we-take-vacation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389139/why-dont-we-take-vacation/"},"headline":"Why Don't We Take Vacation?","datePublished":"2016-06-30T12:20:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:57:51.253Z","description":"One thing Americans are terrible at: using their time off. The average U.S. worker takes a week less vacation now than in 2000, and 55%...","url":"https://time.com/4389139/why-dont-we-take-vacation/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389139/why-dont-we-take-vacation/","name":"Why Don't We Take Vacation?"}}]}] ```