Decline in part-time employment points to disappearing labor-market slack
Jamil Segers, 18 years old, was juggling two part-time jobs in retail and restaurants, living paycheck-to-paycheck and delivering pizzas until 2:30 a.m. Then he landed a full-time job in September at a Williamsport, Md., manufacturer assembling and packaging window parts.
“It’s stable, unlike my part-time jobs,” said Mr. Segers.
For most of the expansion, the U.S. had an overabundance of workers who wanted full-time work but, like Mr. Segers, were stuck in part-time jobs. It was a sign of slack that lingered in the U.S. labor market for years after the recession ended: People couldn’t get all the work they wanted.
Now that slack is waning, with important implications for wages and Federal Reserve policy.
