No links available because instead of paying for it, I just typed it out.New York Times wrote:When 'Job' Means Part Time, Life Becomes Very Different
By DAVID KOEPPEL (NYT) 1118 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 10 , Page 1 , Column 4
JOB MARKET | October 10, 2004, Sunday
While presidential candidates and economists fiercely debate the strength of the job market's recovery, that expansion is tilting heavily toward part-time jobs rather than full-time employment.
More than one million of the 1.2 million jobs added this year are part time, the Labor Department says, and part-time jobs now represent 18 percent of the overall job market, the highest level since 1997.
Many economists and other experts say that most of the jobs being offered are part time because of economic uncertainty, changing markets and employers' efforts to save money.
Some workers take these jobs because they cannot find full-time work but need some income, while others cite noneconomic factors, like a desire to attend school full time, to spend more time with family or to have a more flexible schedule than full-time work permits.
Whatever the cause, the high number of part-time jobs today has important implications for job seekers.
Part-time jobs often come without benefits. According to a study performed by the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington that is to be released in December, 19 percent, or 4.8 million, of the 25 million part-time workers in 2003 had employee health benefits. An additional 37 percent, or 9.2 million, were covered as dependents of other family members, while 11 million, or 44 percent, of all part-time workers were not covered by any employer.
A.J. Catanzaro had no health insurance and suffered for it last year. He endured five days of excruciating headaches and visual problems. But instead of seeing a doctor immediately, he waited until he could no longer stand the pain, then went to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. The headache turned out to be a result of a brain aneurysm, a serious condition. He took two weeks off, without pay, from his part-time job as a bartender while he recovered.
Mr. Catanzaro, 25, is a full-time student at Kingsborough Community College and now works 20 hours a week as a driver for a company that chauffeurs dogs to a canine daycare center. He wants the flexibility of part-time work, but neither his current nor his former job provided health coverage.
''When something goes wrong, I go immediately to my pharmacist at Walgreen's; that's my health coverage,'' he said. ''If I had health insurance, I would have gone to a doctor immediately and not waited five days.''
Along with the scarcity of benefits, part-time workers -- those working less than 35 hours a week -- often have lower hourly wages and little or no paid vacation or sick leave.
Chuck Harner, 63, worked for 15 years as a manager for the EMC Corporation in Research Triangle Park, N.C., before he was laid off in 2001. He has a doctorate in mathematics, but he spent the next 18 months searching fruitlessly for full-time work.
In April 2003, he found a 12-hour-a-week job at Wild Birds Unlimited, which caters to backyard bird-feeding hobbyists. He does everything from sweeping the floors to selling bird feeders. As a manager, he made more than $100,000 annually, and he now earns about $7 an hour, he said.
Still, some workers are drawn to part-time work because of the flexibility it affords.
Lana Caywood, 49, an art teacher in Platteville, Wis., is happily employed three days a week at an elementary school, a schedule that she says gives her time for her family and her art. Still, she hopes to land a full-time teaching job that will bolster her retirement savings and help pay for her 17-year-old son's college tuition next fall.
Flexibility is important for many workers in general. In a 2004 survey of 946 full-time professionals by Lee Hecht Harrison, a career coaching firm, 39 percent said that they would definitely accept a job paying up to 10 percent less but offering a better corporate culture, more work-life balance and other intangible enhancements. And 87 percent said that they looked for flexible hours in a new job.
The part-time marketplace is also more accommodating for the laid-off textile worker seeking to retrain; the baby boomer who wants to spend more time with family; and the senior citizen who is not ready to retire, says Robert Morgan, the president of employment solutions at Spherion, a provider of temporary staff and executive recruitment, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Economists and staffing specialists cite many reasons for the shift toward part-time work. The cost of benefits is a major factor, they say. According to a survey of employers this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation, job-based health insurance premiums rose 11.2 percent this year, and since 2000, 59 percent. There are now five million fewer jobs with health coverage than there were in 2001, the study said.
The globalization of manufacturing is also contributing to the shift toward part-time work, says Edward Learner, a professor of global economics and management at the University of California, Los Angeles. With more manufacturing jobs overseas, he says, a greater part of the American work force is employed in service industries, where jobs are more likely to be part time.
Some employment experts say companies are hiring part-time workers because they are uncertain about the economic outlook.
''Companies have been on a roller coaster and they're tired of getting whiplash,'' says Mr. Morgan of Spherion. ''They've had to ramp up and ramp down and lay off all these people.''
A small but growing number of part-time workers say they would like to work full time but have not been able to. In August 2004, 1.44 million part-time workers -- fewer than 10 percent of all part-timers -- said they wanted to work full time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a 39 percent increase from 878,000 in August 2000. But several experts say they do not expect a significant shift in the trend toward part-time work anytime soon.
Andrew Reamer, an economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, says that while it has been common for part-time work to pick up in economic recoveries before full-time jobs, he is not sure that will happen in the current economic cycle.
''Job growth for the past three years has been almost entirely driven by part-time workers,'' he said. ''There's more pressure on companies to keep costs down. My guess is part of the attractiveness in hiring part-time workers is the lack of benefits.''
I keep hearing numbers being dropped about how many jobs are being created, but of those jobs being created this year alone, the overwhealming majority are part time jobs (high lighted part). How does one even expect to live on a part time's wage? Anyways, I don't think the records match the rhetoric I keep hearing, unless someone would like to point me in the right direction.
