Full time job? Consider yourself lucky

[CountDeMoney]

Full-time jobs are getting harder to find

Andrea Mulhearn Brobst wants a full-time job.

Despite having a four-year degree in business, she's only been able to find a low-paying part-time retail job since she was laid off "from a real job at the beginning of this economic mess," she said.

And Kathi Nguyen has been relying on temporary jobs since she lost her full-time corporate position in 2007. "It's just an extremely frustrating situation," she said. "I want full-time."

Unfortunately, finding a coveted full-time gig has gotten harder since the Great Recession hit, and last week's May unemployment data showed the problem is getting worse.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an uptick in the number of workers classified as "involuntary part time," or those who'd rather be working a 40-hour plus week. The data shows the number of people working part time for economic reasons climbed above 8 million in May.

There are two types of employees that come under the involuntary part-time category: those who are working fewer hours because their present employer cut back hours due to business conditions, and those who just can't find full-time jobs.

While the number of employees who saw their full-time work schedules cut by their existing employers stayed about even with last month, and declined 8.8 percent from last year; the number of workers who could only find part-time jobs rose about 12 percent to 2.6 million in May, and increased about the same percentage compared to the same month last year.

And since the recession began in 2008, the number of people who were part time because they couldn't find a full-time position skyrocketed by 1.4 million individuals, or 117 percent, according to research by Heidi Shierholz, economist for the Economic Policy Institute.

"It's probably more a story of job opportunities," she said. "Desperate workers have to settle with what they can find."

Companies are just not willing to take on many more workers in this economy, even though employers are starting to see signs of economic life.

"Employers are reluctant to add full-time, permanent employees and they're looking for innovative ways to respond to business," said Craig Rowley, vice president of human resource consulting company Hay Group.

The big question, he said, is how do they respond to an uptick in sales without adding fixed expenses such as permanent workers? "They look at temp workers and employing more part time employees," he said.

While Rowley said companies will add more full-time workers as the economy continues to improve, the employment world is shifting to a more just-in-time model. "They are looking for a more flexible workforce," he said, especially in retail and healthcare.

That flexibility, however, isn't good news for workers who want full-time, permanent jobs.

"The constant fluctuation in hours from week to week means that workers face ongoing uncertainty about their earnings," stated Nancy Kauthen, a sociologist and policy consultant in a 2011 report titled: "Scheduling Hourly Workers: How last minute, just-in-time scheduling practices are bad for workers, families and business." "The financial instability alone can create tremendous stress for low- to moderate-income families who never know whether their wages will cover the monthly bills."

[Jaron]

I have a full time job.

[CountDeMoney]

Consider yourself lucky.

[Jaron]

Now I just need me a white woman and I'll be livin' the American dream.

[garbon]

Consider yourself lucky.

If we're going down that route, there are millions of other things that pretty much all of us here should feel lucky for. I'm not even sure that should make the top 5.

[CountDeMoney]

If we're going down that route, there are millions of other things that pretty much all of us here should feel lucky for. I'm not even sure that should make the top 5.

Pfft, like what?  Health?  Family?  Living in a country with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives?


OK, I guess I'm lucky I have hands.  Makes whacking off a hell of a lot easier.

[Ideologue]

Kinda in the same boat, given that my job can disappear from beneath me at any moment--and the cocksucking fucktards whose work I pass judgment on and who are coming dangerously close to fucking up our deadlines with their staggering ineptitude aren't helping one bit with the job security, since a reputation for at least basic competence for my employer would mean more subsequent projects for me.

Yet, despite garbon's sophistry, I must consider myself lucky indeed.

[garbon]

If we're going down that route, there are millions of other things that pretty much all of us here should feel lucky for. I'm not even sure that should make the top 5.

Pfft, like what?  Health?  Family?  Living in a country with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives?


OK, I guess I'm lucky I have hands.  Makes whacking off a hell of a lot easier.

Sorry, B. I really wasn't thinking about you.

[Tonitrus]

Now I just need me a white woman and I'll be livin' the American dream.

You live in Mormon-land, so you know what you must do...

[Sophie Scholl]

Does balancing a few part time jobs count?

[11B4V]

As management, I hate the civilian workforce. Bunch of twats. Unions too.

[Josquius]

At home I couldn't even get a crappy part time job due to being overqualified.

Kinda in the same boat, given that my job can disappear from beneath me at any moment--and the cocksucking fucktards whose work I pass judgment on and who are coming dangerously close to fucking up our deadlines with their staggering ineptitude aren't helping one bit with the job security, since a reputation for at least basic competence for my employer would mean more subsequent projects for me.

Yet, despite garbon's sophistry, I must consider myself lucky indeed.

At least you're doing something useful in the meantime even if this job is temporary, you're building experience in the field you want to enter.

[Ideologue]

I understand your comment is well meaning, but no, I'm not.  Doc review is nothing like the practice of law.  Well, they're both boring, I guess.

Doesn't mean I don't like it, I actually do.  But there is not much future for a man who works the sea in the practice of law for me, or really for just about anybody else that isn't in it already or much, much better at it than I am.  I'm pretty much at peace with that.






No island left for islanders like me.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I'm working full-time and doing a bit extra on the side.
Too bad I had to move 7500 miles to get the job.

[Monoriu]

So this is the paradise that you guys want me to move to?