Wall Street Journal: Working Two Jobs and Still Underemployed

[marmar]

Working Two Jobs and Still Underemployed
By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN


For Richard Crane, the "new normal" in the labor market began when he was laid off from a New Jersey battery plant in the summer of 2006.

Mr. Crane had been earning more than $100,000 a year operating heavy machinery at Delco, a former unit of General Motors. He worked there for 23 years, since graduating from high school. But when he lost his job he was thrust into a netherworld of part-time gigs: working the registers at Taco Bell, organizing orders at McDonald's, whatever he could find.

"I thought it would be temporary," says Mr. Crane, 49 years old. Three years later, he is selling outdoor furniture by day and pumping gas by night, while worrying about his skills atrophying and spending scant time with his teenage son. He makes about a third of his former pay.

Mr. Crane is part of a growing group of underemployed -- people in part-time jobs who want full-time work or people in jobs that don't employ their skills. Since the recession began two years ago, the number of people involuntarily working part-time jobs has more than doubled to 9.3 million, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest number on record.

The proliferation of underemployed could represent a profound reordering of the employment structure. Many people who had comfortable full-time jobs with benefits and advancement opportunities now are cobbling together smaller jobs often at lower pay, in a shift that economists say could become permanent for many individuals stuck in the cycle. Underemployment, along with unemployment, is widely seen as a force slowing the economic recovery. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125962111284270397.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEForthNews

[endless october]

1. it's sad what we've done to the American worker.

globalism gutted the unions. this is what happens in a non-union America.

[Moondog]

2. Probably

the "new normal" for many. And without even a hint of relief on the distant horizon.

[marmar]

3. Yep.....It almost has a permanent feel to it.....

nt