Ah, the teamsters, good for them! The title is still very valid, Obamacare doesn't create part-time jobs in that employers have been using part-time to deny workers benefits since 1980 as a strategy. In other words, if anyone bothered to look at the trend, (see our CPS overviews), part-time has been steadily increasing and that trend is long before Obamacare.

Below is a graph of part-time workers as a ratio of total employed (CPS).

The real trend is those forced into part-time work when they need full time. Normally it is a recession indicator, but it has stayed mega high since 2008.

Below is a graph of those stuck in part-time jobs who need full time work and they are in part-time because that's all the hours they can get.   The graph is a ratio of those forced into part-time to the total employed (CPS). 

We see the trend line correlates to recessions until 2008 where it stays mega high.

It seems much more probable that this is due to the terrible economic conditions than blaming this sorely on Obamacare's < 50 employee, part-time exemptions.

Bud, I think you might be interested in this article, see here. It has the latest MEDIAN wages and distributions as reported by the SSA via tax records. (2011).

Folks, I highly recommend watching this. It brings home the hundreds of statistics and charts we overview every day on this site.

One can have charts, lines, statistics and numbers, but nothing tells the tale better than real regular folk on what is really going on in America today.

seems i read a month or two that eggs had spiked in price because a disease outbreak necessitated slaughering a significant part of the mexican flock, so this is likely just a return to normal prices..

the only STEM professionals that i know of off the top of my head that are unionized are BOEING engineers. I'm not sure how many or which disciplines but that is the only one I've ever heard of being in a union. As an engineer myself (presently) i believe hell will freeze over before we see a mass movement among STEM professionals to organize in the United States.

And public sector workers look out, the Republicans want to kill you and oh by the way, the Democrats won't save you.

Good luck to all and good night

Thank you for this. Politicians clearly just say "whatever" to win elections as only corporate lobbyist written agendas get through D.C.

The spin coming from Silicon valley that somehow it is perfectly ok to let China have the entire U.S. manufacturing base is not just offensive, it is destroying the nation!

I'm very glad someone pointed out China has more money from America to now buy America and they are doing just that.

ABC News has just a minor partial list of recent Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies.

USA today also has a partial list;

Between 2009 and 2011, 269 deals were part of the CFIUS review process. Of those 269 deals, 100 were investigated and just 13 withdrew during the investigation and 12 withdrew during the initial review.

While there's public interest whenever a Chinese company wants to buy a U.S. one, those deals have been rare. This year, Chinese companies have bought 10 companies worth $10.5 billion, says Thomson Reuters. That's more than 20% of the 484 U.S. companies that have been bought by foreign companies this year worth $43.6 billion, Thomson Reuters says.

But the size of the Chinese deals is growing, which indicates the increasing ability of Chinese companies to buy large U.S. companies. The $10.5 billion spent by Chinese companies on U.S. companies is nearly double the $5.3 billion spent at this point in 2012 and well above the $863.6 million at this point in 2011.

A wonderful article that sums up the situation quite well. Who would have thought the American worker would be "saved" by the right? Bernie Sanders was eloquent in his criticism and then sacrificed the American worker along with all of the other Democrats--a truly pathetic display. The only entity that is looking out for the American worker in this race to please corporate masters is the conflict between the parties itself: Let's hope it continues because it's obvious that workers have lost a seat at the political table. Period.

Business increasingly uses immigration as a means of disciplining labor. Workers on temporary work visas obviously cannot effectively bargain with business, as they require continued sponsorship. Workers with those visas can oftentimes be counted on to do unethical work under a real threat of deportation.

A new, large pool of cheap immigrant labor - obviously one goal business has for the new immigration bill - will further depress wages in the US. When organized labor is either too misinformed or culpable to oppose such a bill, labor should rightly fear for its future.

That's right, India believes they have every right to "export" people as part of "trade". In other words, H-1B brings profits to India through remittances and many H-1Bs are actually used to train in the U.S. and then technology transfer the project out of the United States and back to India.

I'm really glad the "left" types of sites are realizing the realities of immigration, labor arbitrage, wages and the economy. About time! The worst is STEM professionals. They sit on their hands and do not organize. If any group needed a union at this point, it is STEM, Bachelors or higher education levels.

in an earlier post, i explained that a trade deficit forces either or both the federal government or the private sector further into debt, cause every dollar of foreign surplus is always offset by either government or private sector deficits...

 as long as the US continues to run trade deficits, it is impossible for the federal government to balance its budget while the private sector is deleveraging...every dollar of private sector surplus is always offset by a government sector deficit, and vice versa; its an accounting identity...therefore reducing government deficits will of necessity reduce private sector surpluses accordingly...this can best be seen on the adjacent chart from Goldman's chief economist Jan Hatzius...what you see here is that the financial balance of three sectors (private, government, and foreign) always and must net out to zero; because one sector’s income is always another sector’s spending...