If you double the number of workers but keep the total hours worked exactly the same, does that not equate to a larger workforce and less unemployment - at least statistically speaking?
Is that not a major factor in what is happening to our unemployment stats right now?
Increasing the payroll while halving the number of hours each may work effectively cuts productivity down by an almost exponential factor. Productivity is what makes capitalism work, as the more productivity, the less the per-unit cost, and the higher wages that can be passed on to the individual worker. At lower cost, a lower price may also be asked of the consumer, increasing competitiveness in the market place.
But now, twice as many people are each being half as much as before, so the average wages FALL, which reflects negatively in the demand for goods and services in the marketplace. People of lower incomes do not shop at Macy’s or Whole Foods. They go to second-hand shops and dig around Dumpsters for their next meal. They double up and share rent on housing, four or five people crammed into a space meant for only one or two. Unconventional sites for housing, such as shipping containers or storage units, are put into use, often in ways that violate any and all of the local codes.
This would best described as a death spiral.
Yes. There was much made this week about the recent 0.2 hours-per-week drop in the average workweek — the equivalent of a loss of some 700K full-time jobs.
http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=220385
Yes. Part time jobs are counted the same as full time jobs in the employment stats.
If a person has 2 part time jobs, that’s counted as 2 jobs (and as basically as 2 different people being employed).
You mean like this?