Part-Time for Economic Reasons

Involuntary part-time workers, a core U6 component that spikes in downturns.

Part-Time for Economic Reasons is part of the Labor Market category. The labor market is the backbone of the consumer economy. Rising jobless claims and a climbing unemployment rate are classic late-cycle signals that precede recessions and rate cuts. The Fed has a dual mandate, maximum employment and stable prices, so labor data directly influences the path of monetary policy.

Part-Time for Economic Reasons is updated once per month when the releasing agency publishes new data. Each metric page on Convex shows the exact time of the last data update and provides historical data going back up to five years.

Convex sources Part-Time for Economic Reasons data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) API, maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Data is fetched automatically and displayed alongside interactive charts, AI analysis, and historical context.

The Part-Time for Economic Reasons page includes an interactive chart with selectable time ranges (1 month to 5 years), percentage changes over multiple timeframes, a table of recent readings, AI-generated analysis, and links to related metrics and comparisons.