By Michael Hill
Correspondent
When 40-year-old Fran Trahan’s full-time job ended in February, she found a temp position for a couple months.
“Because I couldn’t find a full-time job. I was just going for any job at that time,” she said.
Fran typifies what’s happening in the economy as a new survey of 944 part-time workers reveals. A Tale of Two Workforces — by Rutgers’ Heldrich Center for Workforce Development — found America has roughly 26 million part-time workers.
Of those, 19.6 million are voluntary; 6.5 million are involuntary because they can’t find full-time work.
More than a quarter works two jobs. Women make up 65 percent of part-time workers.
The median monthly income for part-time is $900 salaried, nearly $1,100 hourly.
“It tells you two things. First of all, the recovery is not as robust, not as strong as we’d like it to be, and number two, a lot of employers are beginning to say ‘I’ll get by with a part-time flexible workforce instead of giving a person a full-time job with benefits,’” said Heldrich Center for Workforce Development Carl Van Horn.
Fran — who says she has 20-plus years in customer service and did really well before the Great Recession — is looking for work again and watching her savings uncomfortably disappearing.
“I’m making it so far but I don’t know how much longer. I’m already starting to look for real estate outside of New Jersey,” Fran said. “I’ve been here my whole life. … I agree [it’s pretty drastic] but it’s better than losing the house and I’ve been there since I was 18 months old.”
The survey finds more than half of workers who chose to do part-time are in excellent or good financial shape, but only a fifth of involuntary part-timers are.
The survey looks at how involuntary part-timers are making ends meet and it finds a good number are struggling.
Researchers found 27 percent of involuntary part-timers get food stamps and 20 percent visit food pantries.
“I’m trying not to do that. But, I do buy a lot of pasta, a lot of bread, the cheapest stuff that’s not good for you,” Fran said.
“So, they face really significant economic problems and many of them, contrary to popular opinion, are not getting any governmental assistance,” Van Horn said.
While Van Horn says the survey reflects the economy hasn’t fully bounced back, John Sarno of the Employers Association of New Jersey says it’s more a sign of a systematic ongoing restructuring of the economy. In short, it’s a sign of a “different” economy, not a weak economy.
For now, Fran and millions of Americas look for work, full-time work.
“Oh, it’s hard,” she said.