Part-time hours disproportionately affect retail workers

The national employment and unemployment reports for February, due Friday, are expected to chart continued overall job growth.

But one sector likely to continue as a blot on the job market recovery is involuntary part-time work, especially in retail jobs.

According to a report published this week by the National Employment Law Project, retail workers make up 11 percent of working adults but 18 percent of adults who are getting part-time hours against their choice.

“The share of retail workers with involuntary part-time schedules is almost twice as large as the share of all employed workers,” the report said.

Fewer hours and relatively low hourly wages make it difficult to “provide stable lives for their families,” the law project concluded.

The study, which excluded young teenagers, found that 9 percent of retail workers age 18 to 64 wanted full-time hours last year but could get only part-time work. In the workplace at large, 5 percent of all working adults were in the involuntary part-time category.

The involuntary part-timers either saw their hours cut after usually working full time or took part-time jobs because that’s all they could find.

The report looked at data covering 2012, 2013 and 2014 to conclude that involuntary part-time work is a particular problem for women, especially for women of color. Women make up 48 percent of adult retail workers but 58 percent of those who involuntarily worked part time.

African-American and Latino women make up 14 percent of adult retail workers but 21 percent of those involuntarily working part time, according to the analysis.

This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Part-time hours disproportionately affect retail workers."