Affordable Care Act Not Creating a Permanent Part-Time America

[erpowers]

The Atlantic has an article in which the author claims their is proof that the Affordable Care Act is not greatly increasing part-time work.

"Among the many things we don't know is whether movie theaters, restaurants, and other firms will dump all their full-time workers when the employer mandate hits in 2015 (it's already been delayed). The popular conservative take, reinforced somewhat by anecdotal evidence, is that the law is causing full-time workers to disappear, already. "Us and other people are hiring part-time because we don't know what the costs are going to be to hire full-time," said Steven Raz, founder of New Jersey staffing firm.

But despite Raz's warnings, the dramatic rise in part-time work hasn't been so dramatic. Since Obamacare was signed, part-time workers have increased by just 2 percent. Full-time workers have increased by 5 percent."

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/two-graphs-showing-decisively-that-obamacare-is-not-creating-a-permanent-part-time-america/278887/

[enlightenment]

1. Interesting

what can be done with statistics.

There's a bit of a conversation in the linked Drum article (in your link), wherein the conversation turns to word parsing. A commenter notes that since the ACA hasn't been fully deployed, the jury is still out as to the effect. Another responds that the point is that a Republican said the ACA "is causing" - and the article (which has the graphs your link provided) is addressing that "is causing" remark. What is might cause down the road is irrelevant to the conversation because that's not what is being addressed.

It would be useful to know how many workers who have been marginally employed (less than 40 but more than 29 hours - what used to be called part-time) have had their hours cut to less than 30. I know this is happening with stunning rapidity in higher education, affecting the contingent faculty that make up the majority of all teaching positions these days.