8,245,000 Americans Worked Part Time Jobs in July Due To "Economic Reasons"

Here is something that you might not have known - if you work a part time job in the United States but want full time work, you are considered to be neither "officially" employed or unemployed. You are part of a group of people that are not included in the "official" employment and unemployment numbers - rather, you only turn up when looking at the U-6 number, which is an alternative measure of labor underutilization.

According to the July employment numbers, 8,245,000 Americans worked part time jobs during the month due to "economic reasons".

Working a part time job due to "economic reasons" means that you want full time work but can only find a part time job. So, if you are fully willing and able to work a 40/hour week job, but are working 15 hours per week at a gas station just to keep SOME money rolling in, you are considered to be working part time due to "economic reasons".

Again, these 8,245,000 Americans are not considered to be either employed or unemployed - in the eyes of the "official" numbers, these people simply don't exist.

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Again - nearly 10,000,000 Americans who want full-time work but can't find it due to the economy.

Numbers like these should be remembered when people start rejoicing over the fact that the national unemployment rate dropped by 0.1% last month.

Filed under: General Knowledge