Bill Mitchell — All net jobs in US since 2005 have been non-standard

The Australian labour market has been characterised over the last 12 to 24 months by the dominance of part-time employment creation with full-time employment contracting. Over the last 12 months, Australia has produced only 84.9 thousand (net) jobs with 107.2 thousand of them being part-time jobs. In other words, full-time employment has fallen by 22.2 thousand jobs over the same period. This status as the nation of part-time employment growth carries many attendant negative consequences – poor income growth, precarious work, lack of skill development to name just a few disadvantages. Further, underemployment has escalated since the early 1990s and now standard at 8.3 per cent of the labour force. On average, the underemployed part-time workers desire around 14.5 extra hours of work per week. 

If we look at the US labour force survey data quite a different picture emerges, which is interesting in itself. Does this suggest that the US labour market has been delivering superior outcomes. In one sense, the answer is yes. But recent research based on non-labour force survey data (private sampling) suggests otherwise. That research finds that “all of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements.” That is, non-standard jobs have disappeared and are being replaced by more precarious, contract and other types of alternative working arrangements. The trend in the US has not been driven by supply-side factors (such as worker preference) but reflects a deficiency in overall spending. Not a good message at all.

Deconstructing the narrative that the US economy has returned to or is closely approaching "full employment."

[Paragraphing added for online readability.]

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
All net jobs in US since 2005 have been non-standard
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Mark Thoma — What is driving changes in the job market?

 A recession causes a corresponding drop in demand for goods and services. In such a cyclical downturn, policymakers can help by replacing the lost demand. But if the changes are structural, such as when unemployment is due to skill mismatches, technological advances, or changes in what people purchase that require resources to be reallocated, policymakers are far less able to help. 

So an important question is whether the labor market is being hampered by demand-side cyclical problems, or supply-side structural issues....

The main takeaway is that contrary to speculation about technological change and part-time work, most of the variation is part-time employment appears to be cyclical rather than structural.

That's good news: it means policymakers, if they choose to, could use fiscal as well as monetary policy to bolster the recovery of the labor market.

Market Watch
What is driving changes in the job market?
Mark Thoma | Professor of Economics, University of Oregon Eugene

The Huffington Post — The Disturbing Nature Of America's Part-Time Jobs Recovery (In 1 Chart)

The Huffington Post
The Disturbing Nature Of America's Part-Time Jobs Recovery (In 1 Chart)

This is a structural problem that is leading to social dysfunction. Another fallacy of composition. What is good for one firm is terrible for the society and economy and will eventually adversely affect all firms.

Lynn Stuart Parramore — Half Lives: Why the Part-time Economy Is Bad for Everyone

Between late 2007 and May 2013, the number of part-timers jumped from 24.7 million to 27.5 million. A 2013 Gallup poll shows that one in every five workers is now part-time. Some folks, like students, work part-time because they want to. Nothing wrong with that. But involuntary part-time employment is not a choice, it’s a burden. Often it means substandard jobs with crazy schedules that don’t pay nearly enough. According to the Labor Department, as many as a third of all part-timers fall into the involuntary category....

Part-time workers are far more likely to be paid minimum wage than full-time workers (13 percent v. 2 percent). As they struggle to make ends meet, many will take on multiple part-time jobs to compensate for indadequate hours and pay. Involuntary part-time employment stigmatizes workers, attacking their self-esteem and diminishing their expectations for the future. It disproportionately impacts women, younger workers and minorities....

In the past, research on employment usually focused on only two categories of people: the employed and the unemployed. But in the last decade or so, more studies have devoted attention to the plight of the forced part-time worker and the underemployed. The findings are alarming.

The American Psychological Association reports a variety of ailments associated with underemployment, including depression, anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, low subjective well-being and poor self-esteem. Researchers have found that full-time work is critical not only to the mental well-being of workers, but to their physical health as well. An increase in chronic disease is but one of the ways that forced part-time workers suffer.

On a macroeconomic level, plenty of negative effects pile up when people face the kind of insecurity that forced part-time work often brings. They may squirrel away every penny to cover surprise medical expenses, for example, which hinders the whole economy: When people don't have money to spend, businesses can’t sell products and services. Part-time workers become increasingly dependent on public services, which strains state and municipal budgets.

AlterNet
Half Lives: Why the Part-time Economy Is Bad for Everyone
Lynn Stuart Parramore