Latino Employment Status, June 2009 The unemployment rate fails to provide a complete picture of how the recession is impacting workers. In addition to laying off employees, numerous businesses are cutting workers hours, forcing many employees into part-time (less than 35 hours per week) schedules. The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies these individuals as working part time due to economic reasons, which include slack work or unfavorable business conditions, inability to find full-time work, and seasonal declines in demand. 1 Of all part-time workers, Latinos are far more likely to be involuntary part-time workers. This is true of both Hispanic men and women. As Figure 1 shows, in June 2009, 43.7% of Hispanic part-time workers would have preferred full-time jobs, compared to 33.6% of Black workers and 25.8% of White workers.
As seen in Figure 2, the share of workers employed part time for economic reasons has risen dramatically since the recession began in December 2007. In May 2009, 6.5% of workers worked part time, but would have preferred full-time jobs. The most recent estimates from June 2009 show that 8,989,000 workers (6.4% of total employed workers) were employed part time for economic reasons. These figures are approaching levels not seen since the recession in the early 1980s. October 1982 was the month in which the largest share of U.S. workers was employed part time for economic reasons (6.9%).