[lbo-talk] US average weekly hours worked (Why is America so violent)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon May 14 06:00:29 PDT 2007


On May 14, 2007, at 7:17 AM, Marvin Gandall wrote:


> Does this correlate to an increase in the proportion of part-time
> workers,
> eg. 30 hours or less, or is the widespread perception of a huge
> increase in
> voluntary and involuntary part-time employment also wrong?

That perception is way at odds with the facts. The part-time share of the U.S. workforce has been almost perfectly flat at 16-17% since 1970s. It was 14% in 1960. The share working part-time for economic reasons (the newer name for involuntary) is very cyclical; it was 2.3% at the 2000 peak, and is now around 3%. But it was 4% in 1980. The share working part time because they want to has been flat at 13-14% since 1970.

Doug



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