State of the Jobs Market: Improving Labor Force + More Workers Go Part-Time

We’ve got two fresh trends in the jobs market for you today. And one builds on the argument for the four day work week…

1/ More workers are going part-time.

1.2M more Americans have been working part-time in the last two months, and 857K are doing it voluntarily. 16.3% of 160M working Americans are employed part-time.

There are a few factors at play here:

• Workers are burnt out — pushing many to choose to work fewer hours despite lower pay.
• Retirees take part-time jobs to supplement household income in a challenging economy.
• Childcare centers are at capacity — forcing some parents to stay home or work part-time jobs.

2/ Employers report improving hiring conditions.

Labor shortages — especially among service businesses — have been a major problem. Trouble hiring held back sales while adding to costs.

But there are signs of improvement:

• “We’re seeing an increase in applications, stores [are] returning to their pre-Covid operating hours” — CEO of Yum (operator of fast food chains like Taco Bell, KFC).
• “We are not fully back to where we were in terms of access to labor, but we’re getting awfully close” — Hilton CEO.

Starbucks and Chipotle also said their employee retention has been improving, though hiring issues still persist. “You won’t have everyone get back to normal at once… that should continue to expand as we go forward,” according to the Chief Economist of Ameriprise Financial (FT).