Mort Zuckerman: The Full-Time Scandal of Part-Time America

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Mortimer Zuckerman accurately describes the weakness of the economic recovery and its negative effects on employment.  He focuses on Obamacare's contribution to "the dismal jobs trend."  PB
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From the Wall Street Journal online:

There has been a distinctive odor of hype lately about the national jobs report for June.

Most people will have the impression that the 288,000 jobs created last month were full-time. Not so.

The Obama administration and much of the media trumpeting the figure overlooked that the government numbers didn't distinguish between new part-time and full-time jobs.

Full-time jobs last month plunged by 523,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What has increased are part-time jobs. They soared by about 800,000 to more than 28 million.

Just think of all those Americans working part time, no doubt glad to have the work but also contending with lower pay, diminished benefits and little job security...

But there is one clear political contribution to the dismal jobs trend.

Many employers cut workers' hours to avoid the Affordable Care Act's mandate to provide health insurance to anyone working 30 hours a week or more.

The unintended consequence of President Obama's "signature legislation"? Fewer full-time workers. In many cases two people are working the same number of hours that one had previously worked.

Since mid-2007 the U.S. population has grown by 17.2 million, according to the Census Bureau, but we have 374,000 fewer jobs since a November 2007 peak and are 10 million jobs shy of where we should be.

It is particularly upsetting that our current high unemployment is concentrated in the oldest and youngest workers.

Older workers have been phased out as new technologies improve productivity, and young adults who lack skills are struggling to find entry-level jobs with advancement opportunities.

In the process, they are losing critical time to develop workplace habits, contacts and new skills...

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Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/mortimer-zuckerman-the-full-time-scandal-of-part-time-america