What is going on with the Unemployment Numbers-A Hidden Toll on Employment: Cut to Part Time

[EV_Ares]

The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago.

Ali and Ron Temple lost more than half their monthly income when Mr. Temple’s full-time job was scaled back.

Working Part Time, but Not by Choice The loss of pay has become a primary source of pain for millions of American families, reinforcing the downturn gripping the economy. Paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar, furthering the austerity across the nation.

“I either stop eating, or stop using anything I can,” said Marvin L. Zinn, a clerk at a Walgreens drugstore in St. Joseph, Mich., who has seen his take-home pay drop to about $550 every two weeks from about $650, as his weekly hours have dropped to 37.5 from 44 in recent months.

Mr. Zinn has run up nearly $2,000 in credit card debt to buy food. He has put off dental work. He no longer attends church, he said, “because I can’t afford to drive.”

On the surface, the job market is weak but hardly desperate. Layoffs remain less frequent than in many economic downturns, and the unemployment rate is a relatively modest 5.5 percent. But that figure masks the strains of those who are losing hours or working part time because they cannot find full-time work — a stealth force that is eroding American spending power.

All told, people the government classifies as working part time involuntarily — predominantly those who have lost hours or cannot find full-time work — swelled to 5.3 million last month, a jump of greater than 1 million over the last year.

These workers now amount to 3.7 percent of all those employed, up from 3 percent a year ago, and the highest level since 1995.

Link to entire story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/business/economy/31jobs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[fasttense]

1. Add those numbers to the

official unemployed numbers, the discouraged workers numbers, and the marginally attached workers numbers and you get......18.7%

That is the real unemployment number almost 20% of the population is unemployed and under employed. Typical results from implementing Milton-I-love-Pinochet-Friedman free-for-all trade policies. Next stop, hyperinflation.

[lib2DaBone]

2. Corporate Controlled Media....

One of these days.. the sheeple will arise from their slumber. Maybe.....

[DailyGrind51]

3. And, there are a lot of discouraged workers out there, more than anyone wants to

acknowledge. If you are over 50 and unemployed, chances are, you will remain that way!:-(

[Efilroft Sul]

4. I can relate to this, but in a different way.

I've been doing faily well (could do better) as a freelancer this year, but in May, I thought I saw a full-time job worth going after. So I interviewed for it, and I interviewed for it, and... I interviewed for it. Finally, during the third interview, and offer sheet (if one could call it that) was presented to me. It was then that I found out the full-time job I was trying for had been cut back to part-time hours and with no benefits. What a complete waste of my time.

But it's days like today that make me smile about staying a freelancer. I woke up, checked my e-mail, and I have a nice job waiting for me to do.

[Efilroft Sul]

5. Criminy, a typo.

I meant to say, "...AN offer sheet" in the third sentence.

Some writer I am!