Nearly 1.4 million Californians settle for part-time work

September 14th, 2009, 3:00 am · 61 Comments · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn

The number of Californians who have settled for part-time work when they would rather have a full-time job jumped nearly 70% in the last year to 1.355 million, reports the state Employment Development Department.

These people who are working part-time for economic reasons made up 8.1% of the workforce in July.

Working part-time for economic reasons July-08 July-09 Increase
Usually full-time 309,000 476,000 53.8%
Usually part-time 494,000 879,000 77.9%
TOTAL 803,000 1.355 million 68.6%

Source: California Employment Development Department

The EDD breaks down these part-time workers into two categories. There are those who normally work full-time but are now working part-time. The main reason for being part-time is because there's not enough demand for them to work full-time. They make up about 2.8% of all workers.

The second group are those who usually work part-time and currently are working part-time for economic reasons. They most often cite "inability to find full-time work" for their part-time jobs. They make up 5.3% of the workforce. The number of these part-timers who can't find full-time work has jumped 77.9% in the last year.

EDD's numbers do not break out how many people work more than one part-time job. Part-time is considered any job less than 35 hours a week.

We'll learn more about the California and Orange County unemployment picture Friday, Sept. 18, when the August jobless numbers are released.

The U.S. unemployment report released Sept. 4 showed layoffs slowing to 216,000 in August, but the unemployment rate jumping to 9.7%, a 26-year high.

http://economy.freedomblogging.com/2009 ... time-work/