How Employers Are Using Part-Time Roles to Skirt Benefit Costs

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a quiet shift in the labor market: employers are increasingly splitting full-time positions into part-time roles to avoid paying health insurance and other benefits. With the unemployment rate steady at 4.3% and nonfarm payrolls ticking up, the data shows a surge in part-time employment for economic reasons — up 12% year-over-year. The hosts drill into recent JOLTS data showing 7.6 million job openings, yet more workers reporting they can't find full-time work. They discuss how this trend disproportionately affects older workers and those in retail and hospitality, using Walmart's recent schedule changes as a concrete example. The conversation connects to the broader wage growth split and questions whether the Fed's focus on average hourly earnings misses the erosion of total compensation. A listener-funded model keeps the show ad-free, mentioned organically mid-episode. Keywords: part-time employment trends, benefit costs, JOLTS data, wage growth, labor market bifurcation. #PartTimeEmployment #BenefitCosts #JOLTS #WageGrowth #LaborMarket #UnemploymentRate #NonfarmPayrolls #Retail #Hospitality #Walmart #OlderWorkers #Underemployment #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #MarketTrends #JobOpenings #Compensation Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo