Percentage of part-time workers looking for full-time work back at 2 year high

From Gallup’s recent update we learn their measure of part-time workers who would prefer to have a full-time job is back up to 10.1 percent, which is back to the two-year high.

You can find today’s post at Gallup’s Economy website.

The percentage of workers working part time but wanting full-time work was 10.1% in February, an increase from 9.6% in January, and the highest rate measured since January 2012.

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As you read the post, I’d like you to take a look at the recent highs and lows on each of the charts presented. Can someone tell me how the “most positive” looking numbers happened immediately prior to the November election, and immediately after the election the numbers turned for the worse? Here is another example, it’s Gallup’s U.S. Payroll to Population Employment Rates where we find the percent of adult population employed full time for an employer was at a two-year high right before the election, and then the percentage noticeably went down almost 2.5 percent within a few months.

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I’m really curious as to what people think. Was this a manipulation by Gallup (ie the media machine)? Or was it simply a coincidence that the numbers got better in the three to six months prior to the election and then they got worse again? If you say it was a coincidence, can you provide some reasons – any specific reason – why the employment picture got better during the months leading up to the election and got worse immediately after?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

3 Comments

  1. ricbee on March 7, 2013 at 3:59 pm

    Corrupticut doesn’t seem to be participating in this latest recovery.



  2. Lynn on March 9, 2013 at 4:13 pm

    I always think the figures are manipulated, but I really don’t know how.



  3. stinkfoot on March 11, 2013 at 1:47 am

    According to the BLS the participation rate for civilians 16 years and over is at 63.5 percent and has been on a more or less steady decline since the end of 2008 and has not been this low since October of 1981.



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