How many Minnesotans have had their work hours reduced in the last year?

A few weeks ago, Karin Patrick, a source in our Public Insight Network, warned that people who don’t apply for unemployment benefits when their hours are cut stand to lose when they are laid off. (check here for the previous post).

So just how many Minnesotans are dealing with this part-time scenario?

It’s not an easy number to find, say state Department of Employment and Economic Development officials. The best they can tell do is give a broad estimation of how many Minnesotans getting unemployment benefits are working part-time hours -- under 10 percent or as many as 17,800 of the roughly 178,000 getting unemployment.

But, as Patrick told us, many who have hours cut simply don’t apply for benefits. That’s confirmed by DEED’s Kirsten Morell. She says a state rule of thumb is that a third of all people eligible for unemployment benefits don’t apply, and that ratio can be applied to those who have been busted down to part time.

Another means of tracking the status of underemployed Minnesotans is the Shared Work Program, which is available to employers who are looking at laying off staff. Through this program, employers can avoid cutting jobs by reducing work hours instead. The state then comes in with partial unemployment benefits to keep the worker whole (see here from more information).

According to DEED, in a typical year about 50 employers apply for the Shared Work Program. Currently there are 400 employers with 30,000 workers covered under the program, Morell said.

Add that number to the 18,000 who are applying on their own for benefits – and you start to get a better picture.

One thing is for sure, the ranks of people working part-time hours have swelled as employers use shortened workweeks, furloughs and seasonal shutdowns to avoid deeper cutbacks.

The number of Americans who would prefer full-time jobs but make do on part-time hours rose from 5.2 million a year ago to 8.9 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this month. The April total was down only slightly from 9 million in March, the most since record-keeping began in 1955.