Involuntary Part-Time Share of Employment
Also tracked as The Short Shift
Involuntary part-time share of employment
In our research, changes in Initial Unemployment Claims (SA) have tended to show up in this measure about one quarter later. How we tested this
What is the current Involuntary Part-Time Share of Employment reading?
The involuntary part-time share of U.S. employment was 2.7% in August 2026, little changed from 2.9% a year earlier. It is the share of employed people who worked part time for an economic reason, such as cut hours or being unable to find full-time work. American Default Research computes the share from two seasonally adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics series from the Current Population Survey: people at work part time for economic reasons (LNS12032194) divided by total employment.
By American Default Research's calculation from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 2.7% of employed people worked part time for economic reasons in August 2026, little changed from 2.9% a year earlier.
A month earlier, in July 2026, the share was 3%. The latest reading is the lowest share since June 2024.
A worker counts here if they worked 1 to 34 hours in the survey week for an economic reason: slack work or poor business conditions, being able to find only part-time work, or a seasonal drop in demand. It turns on actual hours in that one week, not on a usual schedule. People who usually work part time must say they want and are available for full-time work. People who usually work full time but had their hours cut are assumed to want it. The share divides that group by everyone employed, not by the labor force or by part-time workers.
Both inputs are seasonally adjusted, which removes the usual swings of the calendar, such as holiday hiring. They come from a sample survey, so small moves can be noise. In August 2026, BLS said a one-month change in the number of involuntary part-timers had to exceed about 326,000 people to be statistically significant. That is about 0.2 percentage point of this share (a point on the percent scale, not a percent of the share). Smaller moves are described here as little changed.
Comparisons on this page start in 1994. That January, BLS redesigned the survey questionnaire and began asking usual part-timers directly whether they wanted full-time work. In its side-by-side test the share was 4.2% under the new questions and 5.3% under the old ones, so earlier values are not comparable. The survey did not run in October 2025, during the federal government shutdown, and BLS said November 2025 estimates carry more error than usual. New population estimates arrive each January and are not carried back, so a December-to-January change partly reflects that update.
The Part-Time for Economic Reasons page tracks the count of these workers; this page divides it by total employment. U-6 Underemployment adds the unemployed and people marginally attached to the labor force and divides by a larger base, so it is a different number. The Unemployment Rate and Multiple Jobholders cover other parts of the same survey.
Involuntary Part-Time Share of Employment over time: what has changed?
Counties with the highest labor scores
These are labor scores from our County Distress Index, not county readings of Involuntary Part-Time Share of Employment.
Explore all 3,144 counties →| Period | Value | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 2.7% | -0.2 pp |
| Jul 2026 | 3% | +0.1 pp |
| Jun 2026 | 2.9% | +0.2 pp |
| May 2026 | 3% | +0.2 pp |
| Apr 2026 | 3% | +0.1 pp |
| Mar 2026 | 2.8% | -0.1 pp |
| Feb 2026 | 2.7% | -0.3 pp |
| Jan 2026 | 3% | +0.3 pp |
| Dec 2025 | 3.3% | +0.6 pp |
| Nov 2025 | 3.4% | +0.6 pp |
| Sep 2025 | 2.8% | -0.1 pp |
| Aug 2025 | 2.9% | -0.1 pp |
How to read this series
The source changed how it measures this in Jan 1994. BLS redesigned the Current Population Survey questionnaire in January 1994 and began requiring people who usually work part time to want and be available for full-time work; its parallel test found the new questions changed the measured share, so earlier values are not comparable. Readings on either side are not directly comparable, so the year-over-year column stays blank where a comparison would cross that date. Source documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What share of workers are part time involuntarily?
The latest reading, for August 2026, is 2.7% of everyone employed. That is little changed from a year earlier, when it was 2.9%. It counts people who worked fewer than 35 hours that week for an economic reason. It is a share of workers, not of all Americans or of part-time workers.
Is this the same as the U-6 underemployment rate?
No. U-6 adds unemployed people and people marginally attached to the labor force to involuntary part-timers, and divides by the labor force plus the marginally attached. This share divides involuntary part-timers alone by the number of people employed.
Does everyone counted want a full-time job?
People who usually work part time are asked, and must say they want and are available for full-time work. People who usually work full time but worked fewer hours that week for an economic reason, such as slack business, are assumed to want full-time hours.
Where does this data come from?
Both inputs come from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that the Census Bureau runs for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS publishes them in the Employment Situation report early in the following month. American Default Research computes the share.
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