<div dir="ltr"><h1 id="pf-title">Is part-time work the new normal?</h1><div id="pf-src"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/02/part-time-workers/2754095/" id="pf-src-url"><img alt="site-icon" id="pf-src-icon" src="http://s2.googleusercontent.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.usatoday.com"><strong>usatoday.com</strong>/story/money/business/2013/09/02/part-time-workers/2754095/</a></div>
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<h2 class=""> The economy improves but full-time jobs are hard to find.</h2>
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<p class="" style="display:inline">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.</p><p class="" style="display:inline">(Photo: Regina H. Boone, Detroit Free Press)</p><h3 class="">Story Highlights</h3>
<ul class=""><li class="">Four out of every five jobs created this year were part time</li><li class="">Part-time employment falling more slowly than in previous recoveries</li><li class="">Some enjoy flexibility part-time jobs provide</li>
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<p style="display:inline" class="">DETROIT -- To make ends meet, newly minted attorney Scott Neal is working three part-time jobs.</p>
<p class="">He's practicing law in a Birmingham, Mich., firm, keeping
tabs on the North Oakland Family YMCA as a building supervisor and
trimming trees.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class=""><b>STORY: </b><a class="" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/04/part-time-low-wage-jobs/2613483/">Many new jobs are part time and low-paying</a><br><b>STORY: </b><a class="" href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/01/employers-weigh-health-care-costs-penalties/2751801/">Employers weigh health care costs, penalties</a></p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p class="">"I've grown into it," he said.</p>
<div class=""><p class=""><sup class=""></sup>Work has become more fragmented, and more people are willing to work in non-traditional environments.<sup class=""></sup></p>
<p class="" style="display:inline"> Carl Camden, president and CEO of Kelly Services</p></div>
<p class="">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 <a href="http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2013/august/part-time-work-employment-increase-recession/">study</a> the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released in August.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p><b class="">Changing attitudes</b></p>
<p class="">"The number of jobs that need to be done by full-time employees continues to diminish," said Carl Camden, president and CEO of <a href="http://www.kellyservices.com/Global/Home/">Kelly Services</a>,
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."</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p>Moreover, he said, workers' attitudes are changing.</p>
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<img class="" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/56241cb640217d9a059be2d38662914e3b8edd9a/c=0-24-2000-1529&r=x383&c=540x380/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/09/01/1378083177000-GAN-PART-TIME-WORKERS-090113-2.jpg"><p class="">
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.</p><p class="" style="display:inline">(Photo: Kathleen Galligan, Detroit Free Press)</p>
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<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">Derrick George, the attorney who hired Neal, runs his own firm and a company that sells energy shots, On Go Energy.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">"Today's business environment is different," George said. "This is the new normal."</p>
<p>In fact, some employees are seeking part-time and contract work to pursue their own ventures.</p>
<p><b>'A stepping stone'</b></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<div class=""><p class=""><sup class=""></sup>Today's business environment is different. This is the new normal.<sup class=""></sup></p>
<p class="" style="display:inline"> Derrick George, attorney who runs his own law firm</p></div>
<p class="">But Johnson said that finding full-time employment is difficult.</p>
<p class="">There are many people yearning for more challenges and pay.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class="">Maybe, she said, more education would lead to a better life and better work.</p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>She has student loans to repay and needs to save for retirement, whenever that might happen.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
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