The Part-Timeization of the American Workforce

It is surprising that over the past several years very little has been said in the popular media about the fact that America is slowly (but surely) transforming from a full-time to part-time employed society. And while much has been said about the temporary and now past impact of census hiring, and government jobs on the workforce, there are still few mentions in mainstream media that since the depression started in December 2007, America has lost 10.5 million full time jobs, offset by a 2.8 million increase in part time jobs. Two recent mentions of this extremely troubling phenomenon were those by David Stockman, who characterized the recent unjustified economic (and naturally market) euphoria in terms that could have come straight from David Rosenberg's mouth, and, more recently, Van Hoisington. And since the Teleprompter in Chief has now made it a monthly pilgirmage to extol the NFP number no matter how manipulated by Birth-Death and seasonal adjustments, perhaps next time someone can ask him why the US not only lost 478k seasonally adjusted full time workers in November but has lost full time jobs for 6 months in a row, for a total of 1.6 million job losses! And since it is now clear that Americans only watch cartoons when it comes to financial reporting, and, at worst, demand a chart, here is, straight from the BLS' table A-9, the historical change of the US labor force.

And here is the sequential change in both full and part-time jobs. Note that after peaking in April and May, full time jobs have declined for 6 straight months:

In a nutshell: in December 2007 there were 121.7 million full time jobs, while 24.8 million Americans were part-time workers for economic reasons; fast forward to November 2010 where we find that 111.1 million employees are now full time, while the rank of the part-times have increased to 27.6 million. And it is not rocket science, that converting a population to part-time workers has a disastrous impact on wealth. As Stockman presented previously, discussing part-time employment "with an average wage of $20,000 a year, that is not a breadwinning job, you can't support a family on that, you can't save on that. Those jobs will not generate income that will become self-feeding into spending." Yet more and more people are forced to work part-time, even as full time working Americans are now at their lowest since February 2010. But for some odd reason the market remains transfixed that 39k very much adjusted and completely unrealistic people may have found a job on private payrolls in November, even as full time jobs dropped by 478k.

We can only hope that now that it has been charted for them, some of the less than captured MSM outlets will take this information and present it to the broader public which, when watching CNBC or tracking the S&P may get the impression that things are actually improving in the USSA.

not only is obama america's prime turd and greatest liar, he is a quack of an economist....

www.obamacrimes.com

 

America's problems began long before Obama came along.  This is what you get when you let corporate greed run wild and send a bunch of "academics" in to solve the problem.

academics became corporate prostitution like the rest of them and what idiot is junking anyone who admits the problems are bigger than one more whore? 

Obama wasn't president in December 2007, or December 2008. This was a creation decades in the making.

Yes it really is ALL about kicking the can either forward in time, or back in time...the PRESENT is never relevant! Very convenient for the belly button gazing cowards, its always someone elses fault.

The Afghan war and the Iraqi wars were both planned long before they were started also. 911 was not the real reason why we invaded either of those countries. It was just some convenient excuse, like someone said one time, a pivot point. Also if you will notice the so-called Patriot Act was lying around gathering dust, having been written long ago, and when the time was right, they dragged it out of hybernation and whola, guess who voted it in?  We have many traitors that must be dealt with in a most harsh manner, this I know.

... er ... Clint:

"The Afghan war and the Iraqi wars were both planned long before they were started..."

There are a thousand "wars" (campaigns) planned within the five-sided puzzle palace.  That's their fricken jobs, after all.  We're watching 5027 with the FDOs and etc. in action as we speak.

Pop Quiz: Who was the proponent of the nascent "Patriot Act", who had it in his drawer?

- Ned

Obama has made things 10x worse

I think you ascribe too much potential to the position.  No doubt, its been disappointing to say the least.  I wonder if the other side of that is that by tackling (in a most ugly way for sure) the biggest long term fiscal threat to the country there is bound to be much short term pain.  

If the housing/mortgage fix ever sees the light of day I think we may clear the last of the near term hurdles and see a melt up.

 

 

I guess the first chart should say "in thousands" instead of "in millions"

In essence, we have to start taxing "robots", that have created great efficiencies and reduced labor positions.  Then we'll just give those displaced workers a new job.  We'll give them money and tell them that consuming is their job now.  Multiplier effect, everything fixed in time.

VAT

 

-not that I want one

Not possible, I was watching CNBC earlier and they only had good news to report.  There must be some kind of mistake.

you see those 4 colored buttons on your remote?

THAT ARE YOUR DIGITAL PILL SELECTORS

I guess you pressed the blue one

 

...bootiful tutorial !

I presume they're meant to be taken orally? :-)

At least Mandy was on this morning. :)

My favorite to :)

Just press the mute button and watch those tits jiggle :)

Part-time work is good for Keynesians who believe they can cause prosperity by raising the minimum wage - by fiat. Dollars for everyone - because it is a human right!

I was raised on "sticky wages" thing.  Until I actually had to work and hire people.  Then, well, not so much. - Ned

For all who like to make comparisons with where the US is headed and Japan, their 5.1% unemployment rate hides a 34% rate of less than full-time workers.

I was about to make the same observation, but you beat me to it.

According to the figures quoted above, part-timers are approximately 20% of the US labor force.

In terms of bubble economy collapse, Japan has at least a 15-year head start on us. But I would confidently bet that we get to (and well beyond) a 34% part-time ratio long before 2023.

 

 

Still, they will never catch Japan who continues to move in the wrong direction.

they have a term in Japan for those who are in this constant struggle

it is called the herbivore man

http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2009/07/japans-herbivore-men-young-ameri...

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