Afternoon Must-Read: Adam Ozimek: Part-Time Work Is Up Even Among the Self-Employed

Adam Ozimek: Part-Time Work Is Up Even Among the Self-Employed: “The U.S. unemployment rate…

…is nearing levels normally associated with full employment…. [But] the number of people who say they would rather have full-time jobs and cite economic reasons for why they don’t… rose from around 4 million before the recession to 9 million at its peak, and is now down to around 7 million…. Those favoring structural explanations argue that the increased use of complicated staffing software has allowed firms to be more flexible, and thus to employ more part-timers. Another structural explanation is that higher benefit costs—particularly for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act…. Several factors suggest the rise in involuntary part-time work is cyclical, including the fact that it has occurred across industries and demographics groups…. Even more telling, the same rise in involuntary part-time work has occurred among the self-employed. This can’t be a result of staffing software or a desire to avoid healthcare or other benefit costs…