The drop we see here has mostly to do with the seasonal nature of a lot of the work in the category. The end of retail shopping season is the major cause of the decline. The trend remains intact. In case you were wondering, the Bureau of Labor Statistics under this definition to create these figures. “Persons who usually work part-time for non-economic […]

As the economy began to slow over the course of 2007, the number of persons reporting that they were working part-time because of slack work increased. This is what is supposed to happen at the start of a recession. Once the recession took hold, the pace at which people reported having to slack work conditions increased sharply. Subscribe now!

Slack Work is the largest component of Part-Time Employment for Economic Reasons. As you see here, the number has been little changed since early 2017. The question now is whether the spike we see in January is due to the adjustments that are made to the January numbers every year or whether it is a harbinger of something more ominous. Slack work is the […]

This is not good news. After coming ever so close to taking out the December 2007 level of total part-time employment, part-time work for economic reasons shot up by 490,000 in January. The full definition of part-time work in this category is: “those who worked 1-34 hours during the reference week for an economic reason such as slack work, or unfavorable business conditions, inability to […]

Total part-time employment fell in January. But, that headline masked two very different moves. Once again, you had get into the details before you got any useful information. And that is what the regular readers of our Employment Situation Report get in every edition. Ask for a free sample report and see for yourself. Subscribe now!

While January figures are suspect because of the special adjustments, the move to the downside here is going to require some monitoring in the months ahead. Why? Because there was a rise in part-time employment. And that combination can be an indication of trouble ahead. Stay tuned. Subscribe now!

The headline numbers in the Household survey of employment were all affected by the adjustments that are made every January to account for changes in the population of the United States. The decline in employment you see on the chart is the result of those adjustments and not an indication of labor market weakness. Savvy readers of the jobs report know to look […]

After showing a little bit of acceleration late in 2018, the pace of wage gains appears to have flattened out. This also squares up with the anecdotal evidence. While employers cite the lack of available labor as the biggest impediment to further growth, they also have shown no willingness to induce more people to work for them through higher wages. Subscribe now!

The news on earnings continues to be lackluster, at least from the standpoint of those who are receiving the paychecks. Aside from a brief spurt early in the expansion, the pace of earnings growth has lagged that seen in earlier recoveries. Subscribe now!