Obamacare creates part time work force, Business response to Affordable Care Act, Gallup report April 4, 2013, 9.6 percent workers want full time, 2.8 million more part time since dec 2007

Obamacare creates part time work force, Business response to Affordable Care Act, Gallup report April 4, 2013, 9.6 percent workers want full time, 2.8 million more part time since dec 2007

“With a 63.7% labor force participation, “conditions in the labor market are considerably worse than indicated” in July’s report”…economist Joshua Shapiro, WSJ August 3, 2012

“Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works fulltime should have to live in poverty — and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.”…Barack Obama

“Since the Democrats took control of both houses of congress in January 2007, the number of people who could only find part time work has gone up 215 percent”…Citizen Wells

From MSN.

“Obamacare has more companies opting for part-timers

“They’re making this move to avoid paying for full-time workers’ health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.”

Another national company says it’s reducing the number of hours many of its employees will work, making them part-time staff, thanks to Obamacare. Scheduled to go into effect next year, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected raise health care insurance prices, according to recent studies. As a result, a growing number of American businesses are opting to switch workers to part-time status.

AAA Parking, the latest company to react this way to Obamacare, manages more than 200 properties across the U.S. and employs over 1,500 people. AAA recently announced it will move about half of its 500 full-time, hourly employees to part-time status next month in response to the Affordable Care Act.

According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, a company memo said executives had “spent extensive time evaluating the impact of this mandate, and the financial impact for AAA Parking is dramatic.”

The company told the Chronicle that upholding the new laws would require it to make “substantial changes in our hourly staffing models, or suffer an enormous and unsustainable annual net loss,” costing AAA Parking over $1.2 million annually in cut employee hours.”

“The New York Times Economix blog notes that, compared to the official start of the recession in December 2007, currently 5.8 million fewer Americans are working full-time, but the number working part-time has increased by 2.8 million.”

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=c7c2d8c0-db3c-48e3-95bd-db7a4da2ef26

From Gallup April 4, 2013.

“The percentage of workers working part time but wanting full-time work was 9.6% in March, a decline from 10.1% in February, but unchanged from 9.6% in March 2012.

Implications

Gallup’s data depict an employment situation that failed to improve in March, and has remained relatively little changed year over year. Workers did not find the full-time jobs they were seeking, and the labor force and unadjusted unemployment rates were flat. The one seemingly bright spot was the improvement in the number of workers employed part time but looking for full-time work. However, given the lack of change in the other measures, it is most likely that these workers have settled for part-time work and have given up the search for a full-time position.

Gallup’s seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate — the closest comparison it has to the official numbers released by the BLS — increased slightly in March, though the unadjusted rate was flat. However, the unemployment rate as reported by the BLS each month does not always track precisely with the Gallup estimate, in large part due to differences in the adjustment procedure the BLS uses, and because of some differences in the way in which data are obtained. The BLS may report no change in the unemployment rate or even a slight increase on Friday as a result of the seasonal adjustments, and Gallup’s numbers illustrate that in fact little has changed.”

http://www.gallup.com/poll/161624/payroll-population-rate-stagnant-march.aspx

Part time workers included in employed category.

“Household survey. The sample is selected to reflect the entire
civilian noninstitutional population. Based on responses to a series
of questions on work and job search activities, each person 16 years
and over in a sample household is classified as employed, unemployed,
or not in the labor force.

People are classified as employed if they did any work at all as paid
employees during the reference week; worked in their own business,
profession, or on their own farm; or worked without pay at least 15
hours in a family business or farm. People are also counted as employed
if they were temporarily absent from their jobs because of illness, bad
weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal reasons.”
“Establishment survey. The sample establishments are drawn from private
nonfarm businesses such as factories, offices, and stores, as well as
from federal, state, and local government entities. Employees on nonfarm
payrolls are those who received pay for any part of the reference pay
period, including persons on paid leave.”

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.tn.htm

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