US employment: It’s a cut to part time for 3.7 million, and it’s hurting, a lot

To play around with employment figures, don’t qualify them much. So on top of the big job losses in recent months, the US has a collection of walking wounded in part time jobs. The cuts come from the economics, as employers back off from payroll costs.

I was wondering whether to put this piece in Business or in Crime, but we’ll see what happens. We can always change it later. The New York Times translates the situation into human terms:

The loss of pay has become a primary source of pain for millions of American families, reinforcing the downturn gripping the economy. Paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar, furthering the austerity across the nation.

“I either stop eating, or stop using anything I can,” said Marvin L. Zinn, a clerk at a Walgreens drugstore in St. Joseph, Mich., who has seen his take-home pay drop to about $550 every two weeks from about $650, as his weekly hours have dropped to 37.5 from 44 in recent months

. This might seem like a relatively minor cut in hours, but if you look at percentages, that’s a big cut in margins. This is the thing that’s eating at spending power across the economy, and Mr. Zinn’s not alone. He and millions of families are under the hammer from ends that won’t meet. That means credit, and credit runs up debts people have to try to convince themselves they can afford. The loss of income is a nasty addition to what was always going to be a tough situation, particularly for the lower income brackets. Rising prices, inflation, and the credit crunch aren’t exactly helping. The mortgage belt, hit with this cut in income and falling house prices, are in the unenviable position of having a debt which is more than the value of their houses, and reduced ability to pay. Getting out of the ever-shrinking pay packet position means trying to find other jobs in a job market which is looking very feeble. True to type, there’s a Cheapskate Factor:

In decades past, when business soured, companies tended to resort to mass layoffs, hiring people back when better times returned. But as high technology came to permeate American business, companies have grown reluctant to shed workers. Even the lowest-wage positions in retail, fast food, banking or manufacturing require computer skills and a grasp of a company’s systems. Several months of training may be needed to get a new employee up to speed.

Whether or not that lessens the pain of mass layoffs is debatable. Being employed and poor isn’t a great option, any way you cut it. This quote is a pretty good summary:

“People are scared,” said Dennis Battles, president of the local branch of the United Steelworkers union, which represents about 1,350 workers there. “The cost of gas, the cost of food and everything else is extremely high. It takes every penny you make. And once it starts, when’s it going to quit? What’s going to happen next month?”

That’s the question nobody’s trying to answer. Some of the business columns are starting to look like counseling sessions. The disconnect between biz talk and employee-speak has never been so obvious. Different planets. Who’d have thought watching what is clearly a defining point in modern history for America would turn into a sort of mass media chat show? One with everybody talking at once and nobody listening? With the leadership of Wall Street, the spiritual morality of the finance sector, the genius of management science, the selfless zeal of Washington, and the noble paragons of the mainstream media, how could there be a problem? Just take two management scientists and call me in the morning.