Involuntary part-time workers aren’t happy

July 31, 2015

Charles Dickens’ famous phrase opening “A Tale of Two Cities” — It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — lends itself to a new study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.

Professor Carl Van Horn and his colleagues at Rutgers University this spring did an in-depth survey of 944 workers, 504 of whom were involuntary part-time workers and 440 who were part-timers by choice. They were a sample of the 26 million Americans who hold part-time jobs.

The survey found that most of the part-timers were happy with their work lives.

Recent Posts

2026 NJDOT Complete Streets Summit Recap

On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the NJDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center hosted the eighth New Jersey Complete Streets Summit. This year’s event, centered on the theme “Every Journey Safer,” was a resounding success, bringing together more than 250 planners,...

The fastest way to ease the housing crisis? Rent control

Op-ed by Tram Hoang, a senior associate at PolicyLink, a national research and action institute and Mark Paul, associate professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Massachusetts is losing its working families. Not just to...

Kopp and Climate Scholars Assess Atlantic Coast Seasonal Flood Drivers

Seasonal Drivers of Storm Tides and Coastal Flood Impacts Along the US Atlantic Coast Abstract Due to sea‐level rise, densely populated coastal areas are facing increasing flood risk during coastal storms. Much of the US East Coast experiences extratropical cyclones...