Is ObamaCare Causing This?
John Lott points out the following:
“So far this year there have been 848,000 new jobs. Of those, 813,000 are part time jobs…. To put it differently, an incredible 96% of the jobs added this year were part-time jobs.” HT: Greg Mankiw
Companies can’t afford to hire full-time workers with the high health-care bill. It’s a clear case of “be careful what you wish for…”
Yep, hiring the part timers and getting rid of the full timers really cuts down the cost for most employers.
Wouldn’t be surprised if ObamaCare is causing it!!
It is definitely causing it.
How depressing. In trying to make employers pay up for health care, we’ve inadvertently ensured that people will have less access to full-time employment.
What was once thought to be a necessary and good thing (providing healthcare to all), is now having a very negative impact (less full time employees).
What’s more, many of these companies I’m sure would hire full-time workers if not for the high benefits bill. I’m sure the vast majority of part-time workers would take “more hours” or “more stability” over “more benefits.”
We should be able to forfeit benefits in exchange for a higher salary or more hours. It’s a legitimate choice that many young workers would make.
I agree with Karla; especially with young married couples. With spousal benefits, it doesn’t make sense for both of them to need a job that pays benefits. I bet a lot of young husbands and wives would trade their part-time gig for a full-time one even at the expense of insurance.
Many families are doing just that! Full time jobs offer more stability in the long run.
It used to be that during a recession, we were reduced to eating fast food to make ends meet. Now, we’re being forced to work for fast food establishments to make ends meet.
Hey, look on the bright side! At least we’ll all have health insurance.
I am not a researcher on the labor market…..but my sketchy understanding is that large retailers and restraurant chains have been creating part time jobs for the last 10 years.
For this post to register with me, the author would have to show that Obamacare made this worse.
Let’s have a little more rigor, Dr Goodman.
Much of this blog has been devoted to the ObamaCare mess. There have been many posts on it incentivizing companies to move to part-time labor.
What will be interesting is when they start trying to convince us that part-time is better because we’ll have more leisure, it will help families, etc.
I like the idea of people having the opportunity to work less strenuous jobs, I think more companies should offer skilled jobs that don’t require full-time. But, effectively “forcing” people to work part-time will create a decrease in standard of living.
Certainly.
Who doesn’t like free time?
Lott has updated his post indicating that he really has no idea if his 96% number is correct. It could be anywhere form 17% to 96%.
Steve
That’s a pretty big difference. Let’s see how long it takes for this post to get updated to reflect that correction. Also, I’m pretty sure Lott’s data showed that the increase in part-time work was due to people working part-time for non-economic reasons (whatever that means).
Obamacare is a mess, and if businesses can escape its requirements and penalties by hiring part-time workers, it’s hardly surprising to see an increase in part-time employment.
Assuming Obamacare did not cause issues with full time versus part time, the fact that an estimated 18 million new patients will be dumped on an already strained primary care market is disasterous. The fact that care is affordable but not accessible means NO CARE.