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114 Monthly Lab. Rev. 10 (1991)
Reasons for the Continuing Growth of Part-Time Employment

handle is hein.journals/month114 and id is 230 raw text is: Reasons for the continuing growth of part-time employment Involuntary part-timers-workers who would prefer full-time jobs-account for most of the growth in part-time employment since 1970; the rise in the share of these workers appears to be driven by employer demand for scheduling flexibility and a work force that commands lower compensation art-time employment makes up a growing share of jobs in the United States. At first glance, this trend might appear to be driven by workers' preferences: aren't employers sim- ply accommodating the wishes of housewives, students, retirees, and others who prefer short- hour schedules? This explanation might have been valid during the 1950's and 1960's. How- ever, since 1969, part-time jobs have expanded primarily because more employers view them as a means to cut labor costs, and not because more workers want them. In fact, involuntary part-time workers-part-time workers who would prefer full-time hours-account for most of the growth in part-time employment's share of the work force since 1969. To explain the continuing ex- pansion of part-time employment, we must look to changes in labor demand, not labor supply. Long-term growth Part-time employees comprise almost one-fifth of the U.S. work force. About 20 million people in the economy's nonagricultural sectors worked part-time' in 1989, making up 18.1 per- cent of persons at work. A full 92 percent of these part-timers reported that they usually worked part time, and almost one-quarter of them-close to 5 million people-were invol- untary part-time workers who would have pre- ferred a full-time job. (These figures represent averages over 12 months; about twice as many people worked part time at some time during the year.2) Since the late 1950's, the fraction of those at work consisting of part-timers has grown grad- ually, rising from 12.1 percent in 1957 to its cur- rent 18 percent. In the short run, the incidence of part-time employment has climbed during eco- nomic recessions and dipped during expansions. (See chart 1.) But over the long run, increases have exceeded decreases, so that, on the average, the fraction of the work force employed part-time has trended upward at roughly 0.19 percentage point per year since the 1950's. The long-run in- crease in the rate of part-time employment was most rapid during the 1970's. The expansion of part-time employment might appear even more rapid if U.S. statistics counted the number of part-time jobs, rather than the number of part-time workers. The number of multiple jobhold- ers climbed from 4.9 percent of the work force in 1979 to a record high of 6.2 percent in 1989. Because 85 percent of multiple jobholders work 24 hours or less on their second job, but most multiple jobholders work total hours exceeding 35 hours per week, this marks an increase in part-time jobs with- out a corresponding increase in the number of per- sons counted as working part time.3 Until about 1970, the growth trend was driven by expanding voluntary part-time employment, as women and young people desiring part-time hours streamed into the work force. But since that time, the increase in voluntary part-time employ- 10 Monthly Labor Review March.1991 Chris Tilly Chris Tilly is an assistant professor of policy and planning at the University of Lowell, Lowell, MA.

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