By Jareen Imam, CNN updated 11:40 AM EDT, Tue October 9, 2012 Last month's surprising drop in U.S. unemployment rates from 8.2% to 7.8% gave many hopes that the economy is improving, and the lower rates even beat the expectations of some economists. But a breakdown of the latest jobs report shows that more than half of the jobs added this month are part-time. Michelle Asci dreamed of capturing life through her camera lens. But the 23-year-old is not working as a photographer. She's at a concession stand, selling popcorn or ushering people into their respective theaters before the midnight screening. Asci's been working part-time at the same Atlanta movie theater since 2005. "It's going on to be eight years of this," she said. But working part-time at a movie theater was not what she saw herself doing with her degree, and she is not alone. This leaves people like Asci wondering: Is the new American job part-time? More than half new jobs created for the month of September were part-time jobs. Many Americans are working several part-time jobs to support themselves. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/08/us/the-new-american-job/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
When 80% of people in this age group eschew collectivist non-sense: I might give a crap about their plight. Until then I'll just keep snickering about people voting against their own interests.
The new American job is disability. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/artic...unhappy-under-obama?google_editors_picks=true If you are on disability, you are not considered to be in the labor force either. As of April, we have added 5.5 million people to the disability rolls since the beginning of 2009, several million above the previous trend. There are now roughly 9 million people on disability. In 1992, there was one person on disability for every 35 workers. It is now about one for every 16 workers. It is hard to believe that so many people have become disabled; disability has literally become another fallback position for people out of work. If disability had stayed at the pre-recession growth rate, unemployment would be at least one percentage point higher, leading to a true unemployment rate much closer to 10 percent and perhaps significantly more.
Roughly speaking, gov't policy, union rules and labor laws have set the pace for creating part time jobs. We didn't have to provide benefits for part timers, no holiday pay, sick days health benefits. Usually you could pay them a little less pr hour for the same job as a full time person (on the flip side, you could pay them a little more - depending how good they were). Way back it was hard trying to find part time workers, everyone wanted full time, you ususally ended up with retiree's or homemakers. I find it hard to beleive how workers tolerate the hours that are offered. Hardly anyone can get 40 hr workweek. The hours that are offered might be split shifts or different hours every day for part time work.
If you wingnut assclowns want to be mad about this, blame Reagan. Before Reagan, the BLS counted a part-time job as half a full-time job. This made perfect sense because the average part-time job was 20 hours a week. Reagan mandated that a part-time job should count the same as a full-time job so he could claim he "created" more jobs than Carter. Typical Rethuglican horseshit.
What about shifting part-timers to be 1099 contractors? I've heard of places that don't hire people as part-time, but as 1099 contractors. I think they treat them virtually the same as part-time. I don't think they can collect Unemployment if laid off (or contract terminated), so do they get excluded from the unemployment number too? (My info might not be correct, this is just what I've heard from a few people.)
You can't just arbitrarily decide to pay a worker via 1099 vs. W2. The definition of an independent contractor includes something about a lack of control as to how and when/where the work is performed. IOW, an employer says, "work here, at such and such a time, and this is what you do and this is how it is to be done." That kind of control by the employer precludes the issuance of a 1099. Employers would like to have all part timers on a 1099... wouldn't have to pay the employer's portion of the SS/Medicare tax. People receiving pay via 1099 are disadvantaged in that they have to pay both the employer's and self-employed's share of SS/Medicare tax. IOW, they pay TWICE as much as an employee.