Unfortunately the fact that fewer jobs were created in July than projected wasn’t the only dismal news reported in the Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report Friday.
Of the 162,000 jobs created last month, almost all of them were part-time stints. In fact, while approximately 189,000 jobs have been created each month this year, a whopping 97 percent of those have been for part-time positions.
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,” Keith Hall, a senior researcher at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center told McClatchy DC. “That is really remarkable.”
Hall, who previously ran the DoL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, said that the looming implementation of Obamacare could be the root cause of the increase in part-time jobs created, as many employers are in the process of shifting employees to part-time status in order to avoid paying for the expensive health insurance policies required by the Affordable Care Act.
“There’s been so much talk about the effects of Obamacare on part-time work,” Hall added. “This is such an unusual thing to see.”
While the unemployment numbers did fall two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.4 percent – the lowest it’s been since December 2008 – even that couldn’t be completely celebrated. The labor participation rate also dropped one-tenth of a point from last year to 63.4 percent.
Unemployment rates among young Americans also continue to be extremely high, as 11.6 percent of Americans aged 18-29 remain unemployed according to a jobs report provided by the non-profit organization Generation Opportunity.
As the economy continues to recover from the 2008 recession at a slower rate than it did post-World War II, President Obama’s 2009 promise of a 5 percent unemployment rate by now seems more unachievable than ever.