MyDD :: 712,000 Part-Time Jobs Created in May

712,000 Part-Time Jobs Created in May

by Chris Bowers, Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 05:15:33 PM EST

Yesterday when I estimated that half of the new jobs created in May were probably part time jobs, I was way off. In reality, 287% of the new jobs created in May were part-time jobs. Check out page ten of the new jobs report (Warning PDF file):

Persons at work part time, in thousands
All Industries	     January	February    March     April	     May
Economic Reasons	      4,714	 4,437	   4,733     4,574     4,665
Non-Economic Reasons   18,905	18,900	  19,006    19,000    19,621
Total		     23,619	23,337	  23,739    23,574    24,286

Nonagricultural  
Economic Reasons	      4,613	 4,328	   4,622     4,471     4,605
Non-Economic Reasons   18,636	18,691	  18,693    18,664	    19,220
Total		     23,249	23,019	  23,315    23,135    23,825

"Noneconomic reasons" means that the employees in question only wanted part-time work, and thus are not considered underutilized labor. "Economic reasons" means the opposite.

There are probably two main causes for the May surge in part time employment for non-economic reasons:

College students starting part-time jobs over the summer
The babies from the August 2003 blackout would have been born in May 2004, thus causing many people to switch to part-time employment to take care of their newborns.

No matter the causes, there were far more part-time jobs created in May than there were total jobs created in May. 712,000 part time jobs created minus 248,000 total jobs created equals 464,000 fewer people working full-time jobs in May than in April.

Overall, since February 949,000 part time jobs have been created. This number is almost identical to the total number of all jobs created since February, 947,000. According to the Department of Labor, over the past three months, full-time employment in this country has barely changed at all.

Tags: Labor (all tags)

Permalink :: 8 Comments :: Post a Comment

Well (none / 0)

If indeed those are students returning from school, then i have two questions...

Does this happen every year. Like did the same or similar surge occur last year in May?
Do they count as new jobs created if a student is returning to a previous part time position that they had before? Would students show up there?

"Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil."... Plato

by Spartacus on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 06:07:40 PM EST

and one more... (none / 0)

You've already asked two questions I had. How about one more? Shouldn't the "seasonally adjusted" job report offset the influx of part-time student jobs? Or, is this yet another mish-mashing of the data to make it look more favorable to the current administration?

**check out my blog: http://islanddave.blogspot.com

by Island Dave on Tue Jun 08, 2004 at 12:10:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Couldn't follow your math (none / 0)

I'm certainly grateful for anyone willing to pick through government statistics to enlighten us folks.

Here's where I'm lost:

"712,000 part time jobs created minus 248,000 total jobs created equals 464,000 fewer people working full-time jobs in May than in April."

According to the numbers, about 24,000 part-time jobs were created in All Industries and another 24,000 in Agriculture. How did you get from there to 712,000 jobs.

Also couldn't figure the 287% thing.

I don't dispute your results, but couldn't explain to myself or others how you got there.

thx

p.s. This data should be more widely known. What a difference in the picture presented....

"Pay any price, bear any burden"

by JimPortlandOR on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 10:14:49 PM EST

temp v. part time (none / 0)

the # you are refering to is temp workers,

the p/t workers can be seen on page 10 of the PDF file linked by the story. the CES survey counts as a "job" anyone who was on the payroll for one specific benchmark day each month..

actually, all of the 248,000 jobs could be p/t jobs, b/c when the BLS calls something a "job" it means simply that someone was on the payroll for at least an hour that month. the link supplied shows you the break down of p/t jobs w/in the survey..

you need to and the "for non econ reasons" to the "for econ reasons" --the # is about 700,000

--also remember that a person w/2 part jobs is counted as "2 jobs" in the survery...

by Anonymous Citizen on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 11:29:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

let me make it clear (none / 0)

i dont think my last post was clear..so let me state again

CES definition of a JOB = 1 hour worked and PAID for one specific day each month. [the specific day is kept constant, its the mid of the month, just for constancy purposes]

SO 248,000 NEW PEOPLE were estimated to have worked at least 1 hour and got paid in May. thats what the BLS CES survey means.

If you look at the growth of p/t workers over the month, we have about 700,000, which means that p/t work is what alot of the new jobs were ...

[remember that if you have 2 p/t jobs, this counts as 2 new jobs created]

by Anonymous Citizen on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 11:34:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

as for your blackout theory... (none / 0)

I haven't seen any stats on the current birthrate, but...

http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/blackout.htm

by CrackRabbit on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 10:54:23 PM EST

I just hoped it would be true (none / 0)

There was something truly delicious about the idea of blackouts leading to mass births. Oh well.

by Chris Bowers on Sat Jun 05, 2004 at 11:17:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

We Mourn Reagan's Passing (none / 0)

Ding dong!
The witch is dead.
Which old witch?
The wicked witch!
Ding Dong!
The wicked witch is dead!

by Anonymous Citizen on Sun Jun 06, 2004 at 10:17:20 AM EST

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