Employment

Full-Time, Part-Time Flap

Despite the rhetoric from labor unions, there has been no consistent change in part-time employment since the 1980s. There have been minor ups and downs, as well as a statistical anomaly, however.

  • In 1996, 18.3 percent of U.S. workers worked less than 35 hours a week -- down from 18.9 percent in 1994 and about the same as 1983's 18.4 percent.

  • While the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported part-timers as only 16.9 percent of the workforce in 1990, it had changed its survey techniques in 1994 -- which produced the jump to the 18 percent range.

  • The percentage of workers holding more than one job has hovered between 5 and 6 percent for the past 15 years.

  • Three-quarters of part-timers are women -- mostly mothers with young children.

Students and retirees account for most of the rest, experts say.

Meanwhile, the wage gap between union and non-union workers in recent years, even among full-time private-sector employees, has narrowed.

Source: Ed Rubenstein, "Right Data," National Review, September 29, 1997.

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