Why More Americans Are Turning to Part-Time Work

[February 25, 2023](Compiled and reported by Epoch Times reporter Zhang Ting)part timeJobs are exploding.according toU.S.Between December and January, 1.2 million more Americans were working part-time than in previous months, according to the Labor Department. The majority of this increase (857,000) took part-time jobs voluntarily, not because they could not find full-time work or their hours were cut.

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160 million employed in JanuaryU.S.A total of 16.3% of people are engaged inpart timeWork. The Department of Labor defines part-time work as work of fewer than 35 hours in a week.

The total number of people who voluntarily worked part-time in January was nearly six times as many as 22.1 million people who wanted to work full-time but were forced to work part-time, the highest proportion in the 20 years before the Covid-19 pandemic record.

The ratio typically remained between three to one and five to one in the 20 years before the pandemic. In the first months of the pandemic, when millions of Americans were laid off, unable to find full-time work, or seeing their hours cut, those numbers were largely the same as they are now.

Part-time jobs are growing rapidly in several industries, including K-12 education, health care and recreational services, according to the Labor Department.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 25 that Kelly Education president Nicola Soares said the school system now pays substitute teachers about $150 a day, an amount that has increased over the past few years. That rose about 16 percent as school systems grapple with teacher shortages.

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Reasons for the surge in part-time jobs

Economists, employers and workers believe the rise in part-time jobs reflects changes in the U.S. economy and a historically tight labor market, the report said. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to burnout among some workers, while prompting many to rethink their careers, with some already downgraded to part-time roles.

In addition, others who have retired or opted out of the labor force are taking part-time jobs to supplement their household income due to high inflation and rising prices for food, housing and other necessities.

Then there are the traditional reasons that drive people to work part-time, such as family care responsibilities and health concerns, are also at play.

“Part-time work for non-economic reasons is expanding faster than people think, and it appears to have risen to A high level. I don’t think it’s going to come back.”

“Non-economic reasons,” as defined by the Department of Labor, are when people work part-time for voluntary or family or personal reasons, rather than out of necessity.

Ernie Park spent ten years in senior engineering jobs at technology companies. Having struggled in 2021, feeling exhausted, eager to spend more time with his family, and financially secure thanks to savings from his previous position and his wife’s full-time job, he quit his job, Got a part-time hourly job and later a temporary consulting job. These part-time jobs are also working for technology companies.

“It was perfect,” he told Huari. “I was able to maintain my skills but also have time to do things that are more important to me.”

In his first year of part-time work, he said, he earned 25 percent of his full-time income and worked 15 percent of his hours. The family gets health insurance through his wife’s job.

Parker, 32, now runs a family farm with his parents and other relatives in Hillsborough, New Jersey, where he raises chickens and grows vegetables. He also created a book called “Part-Time Tech” to help other skilled workers make the transition to part-time work. The book has about 1,000 subscribers, he said. He has already started getting inquiries from companies interested in offering more part-time work.

Part-time job pool increases and employers have to adapt to this reality

Jeffrey Korzenik, chief economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, said the rise in part-time workers shows that some employers are adapting to a recognition that the abundant labor supply of past decades Likely not to continue, “When you run out of full-time workers, you start looking at part-time options,” he said. “That expands your effective labor pool. That means working parents, older workers and others who think People for whom part-time labor is highly desirable can apply for the positions you offer.”

Before the pandemic, the bookstore-bar-cafe that Katie Pinard co-founded in Biddeford, Maine, always had full-time and Portfolio of part-time employees. But now, she said, only one of the 20 employees works full time.

“For a lot of our employees, 25 hours, maybe 30 hours, is their maximum capacity. Part of it is mental health, and part of it is people making different priorities in their lives,” she said.

To accommodate employee preferences, Pinard now closes stores at 6 p.m. or 9 p.m., depending on the day, rather than staying open until 10 or 11 p.m. most days, as it was before the pandemic. She now needs more people to work the same number of shifts, which increases costs while also increasing the time it takes to manage staff and maintain store culture and cohesion.

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“If someone said, ‘I want to go full-time,’ I would say, ‘Great, can you start now?'” she said

Many of the traditional disadvantages of part-time work haven’t changed. Part-time workers typically earn less than full-time workers doing similar work and are often ineligible for benefits such as health insurance.

Responsible editor: Lin Yan#