CAITLIN WILSON
AUG 8, 2014
Illinoisans, more than most of the rest of the nation, are becoming trapped in part-time jobs that don’t pay benefits, according to a new report by the Chicago Tribune’s Richard Webner.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that Illinois had the eighth-highest number of involuntary part-time workers in the country last year, with 5.7 percent of the workforce working part time, according to the Chicago Tribune. This marks a major leap from 2007 (when 2.7 percent of the work force was working part time), when the state ranked 23rd. The involuntary part-time workforce is smaller in 2013, however, than it was in 2011.
This chart and graph from the Tribune show part-time involuntary workers in Illinois in relation to the rest of the country and the rise the state has seen in involuntary part-time workers since before the recession:
According to the Tribune, this rise in part-time workers is mostly because employers had to cut back the hours they offered during the recession. Many employees will see their hours restored as the economy continues to improve, but retail jobs are likely to remain mainly part-time positions, because of the flexibility it offers employers. From the Tribune:
[University of Chicago Professor Susan Lambert] said businesses have developed a practice of hiring large numbers of workers and giving them each fewer hours, in order to have more flexibility in scheduling. In times of high demand, the businesses have all the workers they need. In times of low demand, they spread the hours thin among employees.
Working on an erratic or unpredictable schedule can make it hard for workers to get the most out of their lives with family and friends outside of work. Some don’t get to spend as much time with their children as they would if they worked steadier schedules or they must depend on unpredictable or unreliable childcare. Plus, fewer hours means less money earned and often no insurance benefits. From the Tribune:
The unpredictable hours create stress for workers like Nancy Salgado, an employee at McDonald’s in Logan Square, who said she struggles to care for her son and daughter with a schedule that can vary from 16 to 25 hours a week. Sometimes she has to delay paying her bills, she said.
It’s not just causing problems for people with children. Part-time waitress Antonia Nikolova told the Tribune her job has made her feel isolated from her friends because they don’t have the same schedule as her, on top of having to worry about the financial burdens that working part-time hours brings.
The Tribune reported that part-time work is not only hard on individual workers and their families, but can drag down the economy as a whole:
The ballooning of part-time work puts a damper on the economy by creating a class of workers without much disposable income, said Arne Kalleberg, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina. Part-time workers often make close to minimum wage and get few or no benefits.
Caitlin Wilson is a staff writer for Reboot Illinois. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago, where she studied journalism and political science. Caitlin has become both endeared to and frustrated with her adopted home state and wants to bring Illinoisans the information they need to actively participate in the politics that directly affect them. You can find Reboot on Facebook here and on Twitter at @rebootillinois.