Andrea Mulhearn Brobst wants a full-time job.

Despite having a four-year degree in business, she’s only been able to find a low-paying part-time retail job since she was laid off “from a real job at the beginning of this economic mess,” she said.

And Kathi Nguyen has been relying on temporary jobs since she lost her full-time corporate position in 2007. “It's just an extremely frustrating situation,” she said. “I want full-time.”

Unfortunately, finding a coveted full-time gig has gotten harder since the Great Recession hit, and last week’s May unemployment data showed the problem is getting worse.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an uptick in the number of workers classified as “involuntary part time,” or those who’d rather be working a 40-hour plus week. The data shows the number of people working part time for economic reasons climbed above 8 million in May.

There are two types of employees that come under the involuntary part-time category: those who are working fewer hours because their present employer cut back hours due to business conditions, and those who just can’t find full-time jobs.

While the number of employees who saw their full-time work schedules cut by their existing employers stayed about even with last month, and declined 8.8 percent from last year; the number of workers who could only find part-time jobs rose about 12 percent to 2.6 million in May, and increased about the same percentage compared to the same month last year.

And since the recession began in 2008, the number of people who were part time because they couldn’t find a full-time position skyrocketed by 1.4 million individuals, or 117 percent, according to research by Heidi Shierholz, economist for the Economic Policy Institute.

“It’s probably more a story of job opportunities,” she said. “Desperate workers have to settle with what they can find.”

Companies are just not willing to take on many more workers in this economy, even though employers are starting to see signs of economic life.

“Employers are reluctant to add full-time, permanent employees and they’re looking for innovative ways to respond to business,” said Craig Rowley, vice president of human resource consulting company Hay Group.

The big question, he said, is how do they respond to an uptick in sales without adding fixed expenses such as permanent workers? “They look at temp workers and employing more part time employees,” he said.

While Rowley said companies will add more full-time workers as the economy continues to improve, the employment world is shifting to a more just-in-time model. “They are looking for a more flexible workforce,” he said, especially in retail and healthcare.

That flexibility, however, isn’t good news for workers who want full-time, permanent jobs.

“The constant fluctuation in hours from week to week means that workers face ongoing uncertainty about their earnings,” stated Nancy Kauthen, a sociologist and policy consultant in a 2011 report titled: “Scheduling Hourly Workers: How last minute, just-in-time scheduling practices are bad for workers, families and business.” “The financial instability alone can create tremendous stress for low- to moderate-income families who never know whether their wages will cover the monthly bills.”

What’s your take? Are you working part time but would rather have a full-time gig?

MARIO ANZUONI / Reuters

The construction industry has been hit hard in the economic downturn.

The glum headline numbers in Friday's monthly employment report, showing that the jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent in November as the anemic economy failed to create many jobs, don't even tell the full extent of the nation's No. 1 economic problem.

In addition to the 15.1 million unemployed Americans, another 9 million were working part-time in November -- not because they wanted more time at home with the kids or to focus on school, but because they couldn’t get enough hours of work.

That number of so-called involuntary part-time workers, reported as part of the government's monthly employment report, has remained persistently high throughout the recession and is currently about double what it was when the recession began in December 2007.

It’s yet another reminder that the nation’s employment problems go beyond just those who don’t have a job at all.

A broader measure of unemployment, which includes the involuntary part-time workers plus those who want to work but haven’t looked for a job recently, was unchanged at 17 percent in November. Only 39,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month, far less than expected after 172,000 jobs were added in October.

About two-thirds of involuntary part-time workers have had their hours cut because their employer did not have enough work for them. Others have a part-time job but are looking for a full-time one.

Marisa Di Natale, an economist with Moody’s Analytics who follows labor trends, said there have been some positive signs, especially for workers who have had their hours cut in the recession. The average workweek was at 33.5 hours in November, down slightly from October but up from a low of around 33 hours.

Di Natale says that shows that some employers who cut back may be giving their workers more hours. As the economy recovers,  employers frequently boost hours for existing employees before hiring new ones, she said.

“You’re not going to see a lot of hiring until their current work force is sort of tapped out, as much as it can possibly be,” she said.

Still, the weak recovery will likely mean that it could take some time for those millions of people who want more hours to return to full-time work.

“It is something that is bound to be well above historical norms for a very long time,” said Mike Montgomery, U.S. economist with IHS Global Insight.

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