Part-time workers on the rise in the United States

New data released last week showed that the United States’ economy added 288,000 jobs in June in its fifth straight month above target, with the unemployment rate falling to 6.1%.

Though these figures provide initial comfort, they also revealed that the number of people in part-time work increased by 1 million in the same month, to total 27 million.

This is sparking fears that the American workforce is becoming permanently polarized between full-time and part-time employees.

Historically, part-time workers have made up 17% of the American workforce. However, post-Recession, this number grew due to a widespread reduction in working hours and an increasing lack of available full-time jobs.

There has also been a notable recent shift in the demographic of part-time workers. A 2013 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco showed that the proportion of 16-24 year-olds in part-time work has decreased from 23% in the late 1970s to just 12%, due to the increasing proportion of 25-54 year-olds filling these positions.

With the economy still in a mode of recovery, it is feared that these part-time roles may not just be a stop-gap to finding permanent full-time work. 

Read more here.

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