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In December, the number of persons who worked part-time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) continued to increase. The number of such workers rose by 3.4 million over the past 12 months. This category includes persons who would like to work full-time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Not only has the unemployment rate risen sharply to 7.2%, but the number of workers only able to find part-time jobs (or have had their hours cut for economic reasons) is now over 8 million.
Of course, the U.S. population is significantly larger today (about 305 million) than in the early '80s (about 228 million) when the number of part-time workers almost reached 7 million, but the rapid increase in part-time workers is pretty stunning.
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