Despite positive reports on job growth and optimistic predictions from economists, most of the new jobs in the United States are part-time or low paying. A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that most new jobs are in industries such as retail and hospitality, where average incomes are lower than the national mean.
Economists have been optimistic about long-term job growth, using statistics such as the total number of new jobs to illustrate an expansion of the workforce. But an alarming number of these jobs aren’t full time – many, in fact, are part-time jobs at low-paying workplaces that result in negative effects on measures of employment.
Over 162,000 new jobs were added to the American economy on July – a figure that, despite beating out the predictions of many bearish economists, fell below estimates from many more optimistic analysts. The new jobs were primarily in retail, where a total of 47,000 new jobs were created, and hospitality, with 38,000 new jobs.
What’s far more alarming is that over 60 percent of the new jobs were in temporary positions – often seasonal jobs or part-time positions. Temporary positions make up approximately 22 percent of total United States employment, and the new jobs are overwhelming in this relatively small slice of the national economy.
While the low-income job growth is alarming for the economy as a whole, it’s a good sign for workers with limited education and restricted job prospects. Americans that graduated high school but did not attend college gained 400,000 new jobs in July as four-year degree holders saw over 256,000 full-time positions disappear.
Economists have pointed to a number of reasons for the uneven job growth. Many claim that the new healthcare legislation, which requires businesses to purchase an insurance policy for full-time workers, is leading to more businesses hiring workers only on a part-time basis.
