Half A Job: Bad and Good Part-Time Jobs in a Changing Labor Market

2. Why Has Part-Time Employment Continued to Grow?

Why Has Part-Time Employment Continued to Grow? 2 • PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT IS BIG AND GETTING BIGGER. Almost 21 million people, or 19 percent, of the U.S. nonagricultural workforce worked part-time in 1993. A full 83 percent of these parttimers reported that they usually worked part-time. Close to one-third of the part-time workers-over 6 million people-were involuntary parttime workers who would have preferred a full-time job.! These figures represent averages over 12 months; about twice as many people had worked part-time at some time during the year (Terry 1981). Since the 1950s, the proportion of part-timers in the workforce has grown gradually, climbing from 13 percent in 1957 to 19 percent in 1993 (Figure 2.1). This upward trend was noted early: for example, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analyst Jane Meredith commented in 1963 that "the growth of the part-time work force represents one of the major labor market developments of the post-World War II period" (Meredith 1963, iii). In the short run, the rate of part-time employment has climbed during economic recessions and dipped during expansions (see Figure 2.1). But over the long run, increases have exceeded decreases, with an average increase of roughly .16 percentage points per year since the 1950s; the growth was most rapid during the 1970s. The expansion of part-time employment would appear even more rapid if U.S. statistics counted the number of part-time jobs rather than the number of persons whose total hours worked fall below the full-time threshold. Workers holding multiple jobs climbed from 4.9 percent of the workforce in 1979 to a record high of 6.2 percent in 1989, and have remained at about that level. Since 85 percent of multiple-job holders work 24 hours or less a week on their second job, although most work more than 35 hours per week in all, this marks an increase in part-time jobs Copyrighted Material 13 14 o 25 20 c: CD 10 (.) "CD a.. 5 o Chapter 2 Total part-time Voluntary part-time 1~1~1~1~1~1~1~1~1~1~ Year FIGURE 2.1 Unemployment Rates and Rates ofPart-Time Employment, 1956-93 Source: Unemployment rate from U.S. Council of Economic Advisors (1994). Part-time employment rates from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1988b), with additional data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, based on the Current Population Survey. without a corresponding increase in the number of persons counted as working part-time (Stinson 1986; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 1989, 1994). Until about 1970, the part-time growth trend was driven by expanding voluntary part-time employment, as women and young people desiring part-time hours streamed into the workforce. But since that time, the rate of voluntary part-time employment has stagnated, and the growCopyrighted Material Why Has Part-Time Employment Continued to Grow? 15 ing rate of involuntary part-time work has propelled the upward trend. Of the 3.3 percent increase in the rate of part-time employment between 1969 and 1993,3 percent is accounted for by the growth in involuntary part-time work. In other words, companies are creating part-time jobs even though workers do not want them. Why are they doing this? The Beginning ofan Explanation: Demographic Shifts In searching for explanations of the growth in part-time employment, it is helpful to separate the last 25 years into three periods, 1969-79, 1979-89, and 1989-93. The first two periods are chosen not only because they are ten years long, but also because 1969, 1979, and 1989 represented business cycle peaks, which means that their labor markets can appropriately be compared. The last period examines change from a business cycle peak to an early recovery year and thus yields a less informative comparison, pending the unfolding of the current recovery. Between 1969 and 1979, the rate of part-time employment grew relatively rapidly-climbing 2.1 percentage points-and about half of the increase was due to higher involuntary part-time employment. Between 1979 and 1989, total growth was slower-only .5 percent-but involuntary part-time work accounted for the entire increase. Finally, after 1989 the pace of part-time expansion picked up again, increasing.7 percent . Again widening involuntary part-time employment explains the entire rise...