2016 Olympics LogoThe 2016 Summer Games are expected to break the 2012 London Olympics ratings record as the most-watched event in U.S. television history (1) - and, according to our most recent survey(2), more than 55 million employed Americans may tune in during work hours.

Read on for our key findings:

For help in managing sports related absenteeism, read our ten tips for managing absenteeism.  What is your organization doing to get ahead of an Olympics induced productivity dip?

Footnotes:

1: According to The Nielsen Company and NBCUniversal on August 14, 2012, the London Olympics on NBC was the most-watched television event in U.S. history with 217 million viewers. See press release.

2: This survey was conducted online by Harris Poll in July 2016 among 2,010 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, of whom 911 are employed either full-time or part-time. Throughout this press release, "employees" and/or "employed Americans" will be used to represent full- and part-time workers weighted to the online U.S. population.

3: Calculation based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report from June 2016 that estimates there are 151.097 million employed people 16 and older in the U.S. (page 4), with 1.839 million employed people 16 to 17 years old (page 20): 151.097 - 1.839 = 149.3 million employed adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. This number was then multiplied by the percentage of people who said they would attempt to watch an Olympic event live during working hours (37 percent): 149.3M * .37= 55.241 million Americans.

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