The Ranks of the underemployed continue to rise

As I have mentioned before, it's not just the unemployment rate that is climbing, but the underemployment rate is also increasing. When I talk about underemployment, I usually include people who are working part-time, but would like to work full time. And people who are too discouraged to look for work--and hence are ignored from the unemployment figures that the government produces.

Well the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently published a report on people who are working part-time but would rather be working full time.

As you can see in the chart above the top (light-gray line) shows the number of people unemployed during the last 50 years, and the bottom (black line) shows the people who are working part-time for economic reasons . These economic reasons are shown in the chart below---you'll see a split between "part time due to slack work or business conditions" and "could only find part time work"


Click on Charts for Larger View