Another Sign the US Economy Is in the Ditch

is the rise of part-time jobs to the point millions of people are FORCED into taking these and contingent jobs (such as the substituting "assignments" I have been relegated into doing).

Need has little to do with it but corporations' desires to sit on the money has EVERYTHING to do with it:

The Journal quotes Brett Good, senior district president with the staffing firm Robert Half International, who notes that hiring workers on a part-time or project-specific basis “gives companies more flexibility.” He adds, “It’s a ‘try before you buy,’ mentality.”

For the growing ranks of part-time workers, however, reduced working hours, lack of benefits and job insecurity are driving greater numbers into debt, foreclosure and social misery.

The youngest generation has been the hardest hit by the shift to part-time working. According to a recent report from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, among those who graduated from high school in 2009-2011 and did not go on to college, only 16 percent were employed full-time. Another 22 percent were working part-time, largely because they could not find full-time work.

While part-time workers tend to be younger than those working full-time, and are concentrated in industries such as retail, social services and food services, workers across all sectors of the economy and among all age groups are represented, according to the BLS. A disproportionate and growing number of the part-time employed are older workers, at or near retirement, who have lost their jobs and can only find part-time work.

Not just businesses rely on part-time or contingent labor--school districts are guilty of using temps and part-timers to save on benefits and also to use those employees as a hiring pool for future regular positions. That is, if they ever become available.