Ya think? Part-timers might account for labor-force surge

The illusion continues. 

More jobs: part time; lower pay; less hours.

Hooray!  We're off to see the Wizard!   PB
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From MarketWatch.com:

The number of able-bodied Americans entering the labor force has surged since last fall.

What’s going on?

It’s hard to say for sure, but circumstantial evidence in the latest U.S. jobs report suggests many of these newly employed workers have found part-time work with mediocre pay.

But it doesn’t appear that companies are taking the first person they find and loading them up with work.

Consider so-called involuntary part-time workers. These are people who would prefer a full-time job or more hours if they were available.

Hiring has been particularly strong in the past six months at retail stores and restaurants, where both pay and the number of hours employees work lags behind the national average.

The number of hours the average person works each weak, meanwhile, has fallen several ticks since the beginning of the year.

And wage growth has leveled off after touching a post-recession high several months ago.

Both are signs of a shift in hiring toward lower-paying jobs with fewer hours.

“The good news is that most of them have quickly found jobs,” speculated Steven Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities.

“The bad news is that most of those jobs, as you would expect, have been relatively low paying and many are only offering part-time hours.”
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Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/part-timers-might-account-for-labor-force-surge-2016-04-01