The July 2013 Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report contained little data to spur optimism about Americans' economic prospects. Only 162,000 jobs were created, the June job numbers were revised down by 26,000 jobs, and most of the jobs created were in low-paying fields such as retail and food services.
The most disturbing number, however, is the ratio of new full-time to part-time jobs. Since March of this year, part-time jobs have increased by 791,000, full-time a paltry 187,000.
The meager number of new full-time jobs created is hardly good news for the nearly 2 million freshly-minted college graduates. Members of the Class of 2013 expect to start their careers this summer and fall, but the cold reality is that the full-time professional jobs most graduates hope to land are becoming harder to find every year. In fact, the number of such jobs is shrinking. Last month payrolls for those with at least a four-year college degree fell by 256,000.
According to a report by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, “For the fifth consecutive year, new graduates will enter a profoundly weak labor market and will face high unemployment and underemployment rates and depressed wages.” EPI reports that 18.3 percent of recent graduates were underemployed, compared to 9.9 percent in 2007.
Most alarming is the long term trend in full-time job creation. Since January 2009 in the United States a grand total of only 270,000 full-time jobs have been added to the economy. At the same time, we added 1.9 million part-time jobs, according to a report by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Economists, politicians and pundits are pinning at least part of the blame for this fundamental transformation of the job market from part-time to full-time employment on the Affordable Care Act, popularly referred to as "Obamacare." This 1500-plus page law's employer health-insurance mandate applies only to full-time workers, which the law define's as an employee working 30 or more hours per week. Not surprisingly, employment lawyers have been counseling companies to transform many full-time jobs into part-time positions to avoid being caught in the Obamacare regulatory web.
Obamacare's perceived negative impact on jobs and the economy is hurting the President's standing with the American public. Rasmussen reports that only 45% of American approve of President Obama, 54% disapprove. Reuters and Monmouth polls find the President's approval rating in danger of slipping below 40%.
While we might debate the reasons behind the shrinking full-time job market, there is little doubt that part-time employment is rapidly becoming the "new normal" for American job-seekers. According to Keith Hall, a senior researcher at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, over the past six months the household survey shows 963,000 more people employed, but practically all of them, 936,000, reportedly in part-time jobs. According to Hall, "That is a really high number for a six-month period.. I'm not sure that has ever happened over six months before."
These household survey employment figures translate into almost 35 part-time jobs created for every new full-time job!
It is doubtful that Americans expect or desire such a bleak future for themselves and their children. We can only hope that new leaders emerge with the vision to get the US back on the road to a true economic recovery.
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