Monday, September 05, 2011

The Underemployed v. The Unemployed

And the bad news in the job market just seems to abound. Happy Labor Day!

Unemployed face tough competition: underemployed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The job market is even worse than the 9.1 percent unemployment rate suggests.

America's 14 million unemployed aren't competing just with each other. They must also contend with 8.8 million other people not counted as unemployed -- part-timers who want full-time work.

When consumer demand picks up, companies will likely boost the hours of their part-timers before they add jobs, economists say. It means they have room to expand without hiring.

And the unemployed will face another source of competition once the economy improves: Roughly 2.6 million people who aren't counted as unemployed because they've stopped looking for work. Once they start looking again, they'll be classified as unemployed. And the unemployment rate could rise.

In other words, it's worse than you think and it's going to get even worse before it gets better.

No comments: