US: Part-Time Working Nation

The jobs report always comes out like a Black Box of economic data. While we added 288,000 jobs on the surface, digging deeper into the report we find that part-time work for economic reasons increased by 275,000 in the same month.

Year-over-year inflation is eating away at purchasing power. The employment report was actually weak but on the surface one of the stronger reports we have had since the Great Recession ended. What is more troubling however, is the report is showing that the nation is settling into a comfortable zone where low wage jobs are becoming a more common part of economy.

What also isn’t mentioned is that we have over 6.1 million Americans not in the labor force but that want a job right now. We’ve discussed the “not in the labor force” category before but this subset is very specific and shows that finding a job in the economy today isn’t all that easy, especially one that pays a livable wage. The stock market of course makes a record while other indicators like food stamp usage remain near peaks as well. Working part-time is becoming a much bigger part of our workforce.

The headlines read that jobs added came in at 288,000 and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. Yet the Fed continues to hold onto a very aggressive monetary policy as if we were still in a full recession. Why? The reality is, the drop in the unemployment rate was largely driven by people dropping out of the labor force and also, a big jump in part-time workers that technically don’t count as unemployed.

It is interesting digging through the report to find what is actually going on but take a look at this:
 

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