Job Growth Dives 33%~One Third of All Jobs Temporary

The United States economy added only 142,000 jobs in August, compared with an average monthly gain of 212,000 over the prior 12 months, dropping 33%. It was the smallest gain since January. The small amount of jobs added occurred in professional and business services and in health care.

In August, the civilian non-institutional population was 248 Million, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. A record 92 Million Americans 16 and older are not working, as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent of the population.

Roughly one in three U.S. workers is now a part-time freelancer, obtaining no benefits whatsoever. Fifty-three million Americans, or 34% of the nation’s workforce, qualify as freelancers, according to a new report from the Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization, and Elance-oDesk Inc., a company that provides platforms for freelancers to find work.

U.S. General Accountability Office backs that up, stating that approximately 31% of American workers are employed on some kind of contingent basis, such as freelancers, part-timers or temps.

So let’s sum this up. Of the 142,000 jobs added in August, about 1/3, or 33% of those jobs are temporary or part-time. 92 Million people are not working. I’m  no mathematician, but let me try:

Let’s suppose you were looking for a full-time job last month, of which there were 93,720 full- time jobs in the entire United States. That means: There were an average of 981 people job-hunting for every 1 full-time job opening.

Recent job hunting experiences show how difficult getting a job is:

• In June, hundreds of applicants lined up in Queens for just one hundred union jobs. People camped out on the sidewalk in front of the union training center 5 days prior, on Thursday, in hopes of getting an application on Monday morning. The line continued for several city blocks.

• Reddit, a social networking service and news website had thousands of job applications for 3 openings.

• Delta Air Lines, was hiring 400 flight attendants and had 22,000 people apply, at a wage of $23,000.

For a few years now, my local news TV station announces when a company is hiring,  like it’s the biggest story of the day. Actually, it probably is.No wonder people are taking part-time, freelance and temporary jobs. That’s all they can get, if they are real lucky.

For every person that lands a full-time job, there’s the 2,089 other people who aren’t so lucky. People are desperate and they are suffering. This latest revelation on the huge number of temporary jobs proves that.

Article authored by Carol Serpa. You can find the original story right here.