An article in the New York Times discussed the phenomena
of part-time work that becomes the sole employment while people wait for a better
job. The article was written by Catherine
Rampell. The US economy generated 30 months of continuous job growth, but
with millions of people looking for work with a greater income, the growth
isn’t comforting.
In March, 7.6 million Americans wanted more
hours while they were working in part-time jobs, which is about the same as the
figure in 2012 and three million more than in 2007 when the recession began. Of
course the invisible underemployed workers don’t actually count toward the
jobless rate of 7.6% because that figure doesn’t mean much. However, a more
inclusive figure, which includes involuntary part-time workers and people who
want work, but have stopped looking is 13.8%.
Diane Swonk, chef economist at Meirow Financial
in Chicago said, “There’s nothing inherently wrong with people taking part-time
jobs if they want them. The problem is that people are accepting part-time pay
because they have no other choice.”
This is really the key; people have no other choice so they settle for part-time work with part-time hours and part-time wages. Most hiring since the economy began improving
has been in the low-wage employment sectors in retail, home health care, and
food preparation. Household incomes have stagnated during the recovery, and
fell during the last report. So now people are starting to get concerned about
the quality of the new jobs in addition to the pace in which hiring is taking
place. Part-time work rose during the recession and the early part of the
recovery, and it appears to be continuing now. About 19% of workers say they
usually work part-time, and that is defined as fewer than 35 hours per week
opposed to 16.9% when the recession began. Most of the gains in part-time work
have been by people who reluctantly work fewer hours because of slacking
business conditions for their employer or because of an inability to find a
full time job.
The article shares some personal stories about
people working part-time when they want full-time employment, and how in some
cases their bosses are trying to get them more hours. Part-time workers looking
for full-time work have fewer hours and less income than desired. They are also
less likely to receive benefits and more likely to have unpredictable
schedules, which makes childcare and transportation challenging and even
finding second part-time jobs. Additionally, part-time workers often make less per
hour than their full-time peers.
There is a good chance that strong job growth in
food services and retail (which rely on part-time laborers) could skew the
composition of full-time verses part-time employees. The article also alleges
that changed to health care policy might also play a role in the shifts to
dependence on part-time workers. Mostly, the consensus is everyone is confused
over specific policies and potential penalties. The article ends by positing
that some employ part-time workers because figuring out a retail schedule with
full-time workers is too challenging. Honestly, that just feels lazy to me.
Corporations benefit from part-time employees
because the employees don’t require benefits. Part-time workers have also
traditionally been more difficult to organize because they have fewer strong
ties to the company. Reliance on part-time laborers will change the composition
of the US work force. With all of this, the need for universal health care and a
workers’ bill of rights becomes more apparent. It will be interesting and worth
further investigation as to why the part-time work force has been rapidly
increasing.
