Job market expanding, but so are the numbers of part-timers and workers earning lower wages

Chart shows number of Americans working part-time who want full-time jobs. While there continue to be signs that the economy may be on the verge of moving out of the sluggishness that has afflicted it ever since growth began again in the summer of 2009, the job front remains problematic. We need 250,000 or so new jobs created each month to really make headway in putting the nation back to work again. For the past year the average has been 153,000.

With the housing market coming back in many areas of the nation, which is good news for construction, and holiday retail sales doing better than was predicted just a month ago, that average could be headed up in the next few months. But twice in the past three years, we've seemed on the verge of a period of accelerated job growth that collapsed.

Officially, 12.2 million Americans are out of work, but that number understates the situation, ignoring the 6.5 million who aren't looking but say they want a job. And then there are the underemployed, another nearly 7.9 million Americans working part-time not because they want to but because of economic conditions. Uncertainty about the future, managerial strategizing and technological gains have persuaded many employers not to put workers whose hours were reduced back on full-time status or to hire new full-time workers.

Some of this would change if the economic recovery were to stop muddling along and really take off. But some of this trend seems likely to become more deeply entrenched regardless of economic growth. Just one more example of the corporate profits and earnings of the one per centers taking the lion's share of gains.

As David Jackson at Seeking Alpha points out:

The number of part-time employment (for economic reasons) in the United States was nearly 4.7 million at the beginning of 2008. Currently, the number of part-time employed has surged to 7.8 million.

Therefore, nearly 3 million people have been employed part-time after the recession. Investors and readers might argue that employment is still being generated and income is flowing for 3 million people. I am primarily concerned because companies are skepti[c]al about the economic scenario and any visible decline in economic activity will lead to surging unemployment as part-time jobs are lost. Also, the income generated through part-time employment is relatively lower and does keep the consumer cautious. This is not good for a consumption-driven economy.

We're not talking about people who want to work part time, of whom there are many with an array of reasons. The people getting hurt are those who want a full-time job but can't wrangle one.

Read below the fold to explore part-timers' situation further and take a glance at another harmful job trend ...