Double dip or just a long slow climb out of recession some job conditions are likely to remain in place. Problems faced by hourly, low-level workers and others struggling to make ends meet on reduced or uncertain hours are unlikely to go away as the recession ends. The extended period of high unemployment has driven down wages for some low skilled outsourced services. It was reported that some outsourced jobs, such as call centers have become as cheap to fill in the US as in India.
An AARP bulletin based on recent bureau of labor statistic says The number of people working less than they would like, due to their hours being cut back or their inability to find a full-time job, held steady at about 8.6 million.
In addition to being susceptible to reduced, irregular and fluctuating hours, hourly and part time workers are sometimes not eligible for employee benefits from employers. Part-time workers may not receive unemployment benefits when laid off.
“Certainly the current recession is contributing to underemployment, as evidenced by the proportion of American workers classified as ‘involuntary part-time,’”
said Susan Lambert and Julia Henly in their forthcoming paper, “Work Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions.
”. The Census Bureau uses the term for those who work less than 35 hours a week because they could not find a full-time job or those who work reduced hours due to “slack demand.” In November 2009, 9.2 million workers fell in this category, the highest level in recorded history
People are talking about it.
A series of four regional forums are planned this Fall by the White House on the issue of workplace flexibility in low wage and manufacturing sectors.
Researchers Henly and Lambert expect the needs of workers for stable adequate hours and benefits will be discussed.
An increasingly large part of the work force has a stake in these job issues.
Already, Walmart considers this “full-time” when giving job creation statistics in support of an application to locate in a community.
one of the many reasons the unemployment rate is a limited and often misleading measure
when you add involuntary part-time, “discouraged workers” and the “marginally attached”, the rate of labor under-utilization is usually 50% higher than the published unemployment rate (I first wrote about this 13 years ago in Phase 2 of the Job Gap Study)
sadly (as noted above), the recession has further eroded workers’ bargaining power for livable wages & benefits
it’s OK though, Brian Dubie’s tax cuts for the wealthy will make it all better
I’d love to see some good stats on how many businesses in VT are owner-operated. I find myself making the decision as I make the schedule each week for my part timers between:
A) Me working harder and paying less hours
B) Me working less and spending more on payroll
Luckily the volume is usually there to cover it, but a lot of business owners who run their own shops are just working like mad and holding off on hiring, and I can’t blame them.
I think it would make a lot of sense for us to ease up credit to small, especially owner operated businesses, so they can expand and hire more workers, even if they are work-a-holics like me.
Do you like Mike for Senate? http://www.mccarthy4senate.com