Wages Up, and the Education Gap Grows

Economix:

One of the hidden forms of unemployment recently has been the increase in people forced to work part-time because they could not find full-time work. The number in this category reached a peak of 9.2 million in November 2009, up from 4.7 million in December 2007. The government counts these people as fully employed, but, of course, they are not.
The number now appears to be falling. It dropped to 8.8 million last month. But it has also been bouncing around over the last six months, falling and then rising and now falling again. It’s worth paying extra attention to this category next month, to see if the trend continues.

* The average length of the workweek increased to 34.2 hours in May. It was the third consecutive month that it grew one-tenth of an hour. That’s a good sign because companies often increase their workweek — to meet rising demand with existing workers — before doing more hiring.

Together with the increase in hourly pay, the longer workweek caused average weekly pay to rise $4.64 in May, to almost $772.

* The recession continues to hit the less educated far worse than college graduates. The unemployment rate for college graduates fell to 4.7 percent last month, from 4.9 percent. The rate for people who have attended college but do not have a bachelor’s degree held steady at 8.3 percent. For high school graduates who never attended college, the rate rose to 10.9 percent, from 10.6 percent. For high school dropouts, the rate rose to 15 percent, from 14.7 percent.