World
Part-time workers are counted as “employed” in the official figures, despite the fact the vast majority of them are working part-time involuntarily, making the reality of the economic picture even gloomier. Those who have given up looking for work are also not counted as jobless.
A BLS Household Survey shows that of the 963,000 people who reported that they were newly employed over the past six months, 936,000 of them said they
were in part-time jobs. According to Labor Department figures, there are currently some 8.2 million workers who are working part-time jobs because they cannot find full-time employment—a record for the US.
These part-time positions are largely concentrated in traditionally low-wage sectors, such as retail, home health care, and temporary staffing agencies. Such low-wage jobs, paying poverty wages of $7.69 to $13.83 per hour, constitute the majority of jobs created in the US since the financial crisis, which officially ended in mid-2009.
The massive growth of low-wage, part-time employment is the result of a deliberate policy on the part of the Obama administration and both big business parties. Corporations, sitting on huge hoards of cash, have seized on the economic crisis to drive down labor costs and boost their bottom lines. The limited numbers of workers companies do hire are predominantly in low-wage, part-time or temporary positions.
Some businesses are also responding to a requirement of the Obama health care law that employers with 50 or more workers provide health insurance to all employees working over 30 hours a week. Despite the fact the Obama administration has granted employers a one-year waiver to comply, until January 2015, some companies are moving forward regardless to cut workers’ hours.
In a leaked memo from teen fashion chain Forever 21, the retailer indicated it plans to “reclassify” some full-time employees to part-time status, cutting their benefits and limiting their hours to no more than 29.5 a week. Responding to a storm of outrage on social media, Forever 21 is maintaining it “staffs its stores based on projected store sales, completely independent of the Affordable Care Act.”