The number of employees who wanted full time work but could only obtain part time jobs (less than 35 hours per week) has been rising since mid 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Either due to slack work (a reduction in hours in response to unfavorable business conditions) or the inability to find full-time work, 7.3 million persons were employed part time for economic reasons in November 2008, up by 3.4 million from a recent low of 3.9 million in April 2006, BLS says. “As is typical during labor market downturns, the bulk of the 3.4-million increase in economic part-time employment was due to an increase in the number of workers whose hours were cut back due to slack work (as opposed to the inability to find full-time work),” says BLS.