[Vision2020] Is part-time work the new normal?

[Art Deco]

Is part-time work the new normal?
[image: site-icon]*usatoday.com*
/story/money/business/2013/09/02/part-time-workers/2754095/<http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/02/part-time-workers/2754095/>
 The economy improves but full-time jobs are hard to find.

Even practicing attorneys work part time —some by choice for flexibility,
but others, to make ends meet. From left, Derrick George, who has an energy
drink company; Alari Adams, who also works for herself; Tom Stanis, who is
also a carpenter; and Scott Neal, who works at the YMCA. Six of George's 10
employees are part time.

(Photo: Regina H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)
Story Highlights

   - Four out of every five jobs created this year were part time
   - Part-time employment falling more slowly than in previous recoveries
   - Some enjoy flexibility part-time jobs provide

 DETROIT -- To make ends meet, newly minted attorney Scott Neal is working
three part-time jobs.

He's practicing law in a Birmingham, Mich., firm, keeping tabs on the North
Oakland Family YMCA as a building supervisor and trimming trees.

The economy may be in a recovery — the national unemployment rate fell from
7.6% to 7.4% in July, and the August jobs report comes this Friday — but
for Neal and hundreds of thousands of other workers, a sustainable
full-time job remains elusive.

*STORY: *Many new jobs are part time and
low-paying<http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/04/part-time-low-wage-jobs/2613483/>
*STORY: *Employers weigh health care costs,
penalties<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/01/employers-weigh-health-care-costs-penalties/2751801/>

Of nearly 1 million U.S. jobs created this year, 80% — four of every five —
were part time and most had meager or no benefits.

"My parents are pressuring me to get a full-time job, even if it's not in
law," said Neal, 26, who lives with his parents in Lake Orion, Mich.

While he doesn't receive the pay and benefits he envisioned during law
school, he's starting to accept — even appreciate — the flexibility that
part-time work offers.

"I've grown into it," he said.

“Work has become more fragmented, and more people are willing to work in
non-traditional environments.”

— Carl Camden, president and CEO of Kelly Services

Economists expect spikes in part-time jobs during recessions. Historically,
they drop off as the overall economy recovers. But this time, part-time
employment is falling more slowly than in previous recoveries, according to
a study<http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2013/august/part-time-work-employment-increase-recession/>the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released in August.

The report also said young workers were more likely to work part time than
older ones, and it disputed the theory circulated by some economists and
opponents of the Affordable Care Act that health care reform is
discouraging employers from adding full-time positions.

Involuntary part-time workers — those who are seeking full-time work or
holding multiple jobs — remain between 19% and 20% of the nation's
workforce, up from 17% in 2007.

*Changing attitudes*

"The number of jobs that need to be done by full-time employees continues
to diminish," said Carl Camden, president and CEO of Kelly
Services<http://www.kellyservices.com/Global/Home/>,
a global temporary staffing agency, based in Troy, Mich. "Work has become
more fragmented, and more people are willing to work in non-traditional
environments."

Since 2008, the percentage of people in the workforce regarding themselves
as free agents has grown from 26% to more than 40%, according to a Kelly
survey.

Moreover, he said, workers' attitudes are changing.

Part-time workers, Greg Johnson, 22, left, and Matt Calderone, 25, clean
the theater between shows at the MJR Theater in Sterling Heights, Mich.
"This is just a stepping stone," Johnson said.

(Photo: Kathleen Galligan, Detroit Free Press)

Employees — especially Generation X workers in their 30s and 40s — want
more freedom to set their own hours and create their own enterprises, and
older workers — baby boomers in their 50s and 60s — are retiring slowly and
taking on part-time jobs.

Derrick George, the attorney who hired Neal, runs his own firm and a
company that sells energy shots, On Go Energy.

>From a business perspective, George said, part-time employees help limit
his costs and allow him to avoid providing health care and pensions. Of his
10 employees, six are part time, he said.

"Today's business environment is different," George said. "This is the new
normal."

In fact, some employees are seeking part-time — and contract — work to
pursue their own ventures.

*'A stepping stone'*

Movie theaters and other service businesses have long relied on part-time
workers. Many are teens and college students who plan to take jobs in other
fields after they graduate.

"This is just a stepping stone," said Greg Johnson, a 22-year-old part-time
usher at MJR Digital Cinema's theater in Sterling Heights, Mich. "I
eventually want to be able to support myself."

“Today's business environment is different. This is the new normal.”

— Derrick George, attorney who runs his own law firm

But Johnson said that finding full-time employment is difficult.

There are many people yearning for more challenges and pay.

Lynn Spinelle, 58, of Dearborn, Mich., works part time for a retail vendor
at the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village and is struggling to find
full-time work.

A single mother, Spinelle said she made a living while raising her daughter
by operating a home day care business and earning a few dollars from her
hobby, restoring old statues. When her daughter went to college in the late
1990s, Spinelle decided to get her degree, too.

Maybe, she said, more education would lead to a better life and better work.

She quit the day care business, studied at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn for six years and, in 2005, graduated with a bachelor's
degree in corporate communications. But the full-time job offers never came.

At first, Spinelle said, she blamed the economy and her age, and took
part-time work to survive. Jobs, in general, were hard to come by in
Michigan. But, now, as the economy recovers, her frustration grows.

She has student loans to repay and needs to save for retirement, whenever
that might happen.

"I don't just want a job, I want a career," she said. "But I just can't
give up. I just don't have that choice."
  USA NOW
<http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/video/2742375/5-reasons-to-love-labor-day-usa-now-video/>
5 reasons to love Labor Day | USA NOW video Aug 30, 2013


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Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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