Part Time Employment and the Sequester
Part of the reason employment and hours worked, in particular, have been so weak in early 2013 is the rapid growth of part-time employment. Part time employment is volatile and subject to many influences. From December to June part time employment rose 589,000. That is a 2.2% — almost 5% annualized – growth rate. Part time employment jumped from 18.4 % of total employment in December to 19.0% in July.
The unusually large increase in part time employment is due almost exclusively to the sequester. For example, at the Department of Defense (DOD) some 650,000 civilians must take 11 days off in the second and third quarters. They have 26 weeks, but after adjusting for federal holidays, vacations, sick leave, etc., the effective time is 22 weeks. This works out that DOD employees must take an involuntary, unpaid day-off every other week. Consequently, on any given week about half of the DOD civilian workers (325,000) became part time employees. That is 55% of the 589,000 jump in part time employment in the first half of 2013..
The sequester’s impact on federal employees and contractors raises concerns about federal protections against employment discrimination. With a total federal civilian employment of 2,760,000, the shift to part-time work affects a significant portion of the workforce. If half of these employees are now part-time workers, it accounts for 134% of the 589,000 increase in part-time employment. Even if only 25% of non-DOD federal civilian workers are affected, it still indicates a substantial conversion of over a million jobs into part-time positions, highlighting the pressing need to address the challenges faced by these workers.
not sure if having two extra three day weekends every month is such a bad thing. once people get used to living on 10% lower wages they may decide they like it. then the “work ethic” fundamentalists may find it hard to get us to go back to involuntary overtime.
Exclusively due to the sequester?? Not Obamacare? I think you missed a chunk of the problem….
http://news.investors.com/080513-666340-obamacare-cuts-part-time-jobs-below-30-hours-data-show.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/companies-cut-worker-hours-avoid-obamacare-report-article-1.1333305
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324616604578304072420873666.html
IBM’s server division just made all their US employees part time for a week in August/September. Mandatory 1 week furlough at 1/3 pay. No exceptions, execs take unpaid leave.
A project manager acknowledged last week during a meeting that with all the cutbacks our development schedule doesn’t allow a lot of “breathing room”. I just laughed and said “Ok shorter shallower breaths all around then!”.
Shorter Shallower Breaths IBMers!
From the investors link, quote:
Most data used to prove or disprove an ObamaCare impact are of limited use.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ establishment survey doesn’t track average hours worked in the public sector, from which the bulk of official reports of reduced hours have come.
At Investor’s Business Daily
Brasting — I love the WSJ article you referenced.
In the text it goes on and on about how part time employment is growing.
But it shows a chart of the BLS data that shows that part time employment is falling.
Sorry your argument does not compute.
Bkrasting:
Jared Bernstein takes a similar stance as what Spencer England does also here: http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/job-creation-and-the-affordable-care-act-have-little-to-do-with-each-other/ “Job Creation and the Affordable Care Act Have Little to Do with Each Other”
some reasoning: “First off, the ACA is not big enough as a share of the economy or workforce to have large effects. Holahan and Garrett emphasize that its expenditures amount to well under 0.5% of GDP, and that’s once it’s fully phased in. So it seems implausible to argue that a program of that relative magnitude could be significantly disruptive to job creation.”