NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — America has a huge part-time workforce problem.
And it's Worry Number One for Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. She has talked about part-timers at each of her last three press conferences, at nearly every speech in the last six months, and at both of her past two testimonies to Congress.
Yellen's worries stem from the fact that the part-time U.S. workforce is at "very high levels."
Excluding the Great Recession, the 6 million Americans who work part-time but want full-time jobs today are at the highest level in about 30 years or so. The number has come down since its peak during the recession, but some experts believe America now has a "new normal" -- a permanently high number of part-timers.
Experts call these jobs "hidden unemployment" because these people are capable of working more hours than they can get.
It's a tough situation. About 25% of part-time workers lives in poverty, according to a study by Rebecca Glauber, a professor at the University of New Hampshire. Only 5% of full-timers live in poverty.
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6 comments:
Shortly after college I had trouble finding a job so I worked at Best Buy. Almost every employee in a department (mobile, computers, appliances etc.) are part time. One employee from each department will be full time and while the company does not pay or fire based on commission it is your supervisor who ultimately chooses who gets the lead full time spot based on your performance and selling skills. We all wanted more hours but the company kept us part time so we had no health insurance (luckily I could piggy back off one of my parents until I was 26). Very thankful I found a great paying job in my field in about a year after working there. I worked with people who had poor employment history, a lack of education (ie barely made it through high school) some of which had 2+ kids. Its a sad situation but I'm sure it happens in a lot of places. Wanted to share my experiences (thank goodness theyre behind me)
What did you expect? Obamacare was shoved up our collective butts "So we could see what's in it!". Well, what was in it was a 30 hour a week or less clause. This should not come as a surprise to those who wrote and supported the Bill!
Until our government changes their business model, things will not improve. Our jobs have been out sourced and in sourced due to trade agreements. Obamacare has not helped the situation very much.
It's nothing new. Low quality jobs such as fast food and generic retail have disproportionately used part time employees working varying shifts to suit their day to day staffing needs. They call it "flexibility", as if that's a good thing for the worker. Any flexibility has to be on the part of the employees, to accommodate unpredictable and undependable schedules and work hours.
Makes it difficult to find childcare or transportation day to day, and worse, contributes to a cycle of chronic unemployment and inability to "work their way up". Such employees are much more likely to be fired or remain at the very bottom of the ladder. Incidental latenesss or absence, or inability to work a particular shift, result from lack of equally "flexible" childcare and transportation opportunities.
If you can't find childcare for that surprise four hour shift, you can't work it. Period. The employer dutifully notes such a transgression, writes up the employee, and the next evaluation reflects "undependability". There goes that fifteen cent an hour raise, and the wheels of corporate "discipline" turn another notch, until one more late bus ride to work results in job loss.
852 come off it. You people are so blinded by partisanship hate you can't see straight. What we are witnessing now has been predicted for over a decade. These companies are doing their best to cut you, the American worker, out of the mix. It's all about profit margins. Just look at the current situation with verizon. They have been systematically culling their US workforce for 15 years!
10:12 true, very true.
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