“I don’t wanna work. I want to bang on the drum all day. ”
It’s been many moons since I’ve hummed the bars to this Todd Rundgren song from the 80′s on my way into work. We’ve all had those kind of Monday mornings, haven’t we? But today, like many employed Americans, I’m singing another tune. And it has a lot to do with being grateful.
The latest stats on employment in the U.S. were promising – the unemployment rate fell to 9.4% in July from 9.5% in June. This is the first time we’ve seen a decrease in 15 very long months. However, there’s one stat that I continue to follow more closely and with great interest and it’s the one about the average work week.
In addition to the staggering numbers of those laid off, the numbers of those now working part time for economic reasons has more than doubled. Many of the new part-timers are people who are picking up a second job due to a reduction in hours by their full time employer.
This article from The Boston Globe covering the troubling trend a bit more starts off with, “They still have their jobs, but the recession has not spared them.” Although one person in the report notes a “silver lining” to her reduced schedule – she’s able to spend more time with grandchildren – many workers don’t want to bang on the drum all day. They just want to get back to work.
I was happy to see that July’s numbers showed that the average work week rose to 33.1 hours, after having fallen to 33 hours in June, the lowest average on record dating back to 1964.
They only way is up for this stat before we start to see an increase in hiring. Companies are likely to increase their current employee’s work week before that happens. Considering how rough going it’s been, this increase, however slight, may be our first peek around the corner to recovery.
