The Latest on the Growth of Part-Time Employment in California

Over the past few years, a main storyline in California employment has been the shift from full-time employment with expectations of stability to employment that is contingent (for limited period or project-based), or independent-contracting, or part-time (particularly part-time without benefits), or a combination of these elements. Part-time employment growth has been the easiest to track, since the federal and state governments maintain monthly data on part-time versus full-time employment. So, as we move into 2016, it is time to revisit the data. Once again with California data, we start with the Labor Market Information Division (LMID) of the state Employment Development Department. LMID analyst Brandon Hooker, who has been tracking part-time employment , points us to the graph above (click to enlarge), which shows the growth of part-time employment overall, and its two main forms “Part time for economic reasons”, and “Part time for non-economic reasons”. He points us to a companion chart (below), showing the change in part-time employment in two-year intervals since December 2005.