have waited 7 years to get ft. Most of the people he worked with were older than him and had 2nd jobs. Also worked at a grocery store and the same with only getting pt hours.

My brother works for USPS and he told me last fall that they are tough on new hires - in addition to the background checks and drug tests they are considered temp workers with pt hours hired in at lower wages with a hard work load and no guarantee of permanency. He said it is hell getting any new employees to stay under those conditions.

Just a few examples - not universal but seems to be getting more commonplace.

Oh and tell him to stay away from pizza delivery.

Yea I can see the downsides of pizza delivery. I really feel bad for young people having to get 2 or more jobs just to survive. Anyone, really. It's hard enough to maintain ONE job, let alone two or three.

They will hire you part time for a few years and if you are good, you will eventually move up to full time. Most of the part timers either work 2 or 3 part time jobs or they go to school. The thing is, with Obamacare, health insurance is affordable for part timers, especially young people, so it's really not a bad gig. I had a couple of roommates who worked their way up at UPS and they did very well for themselves.

old, in addition they did not pro-rate the union dues and that took a good chunk out of his pay. I agree that there are some decent paying jobs there and he was excited about that at first but after a year when he could make no move - ft or change of shift - that was enough. Also my son is not yet thinking in terms of long term goals and paying his dues.

To keep most employees below 40 hours. They only provide benefits to full time workers so they hire mostly part timers. I think there are laws that dictate the maximum hours an employee can work and still be considered part time, so the businesses keep them just under that threshold.

To be honest I can see the business' point of view. Health benefits might be $600+ per month for a full time employee. It is significantly cheaper to have two part timers to do that work. And with the way health care cost keep escalating that $600 goes up every year.

I'm guessing full time work is still available at smaller companies that don't have a written policy on health benefits. ie. If your son got a job at a local guitar store that only had a few employees he might get a 40 hour job with no benefits. The owner could decide a year or so later that he was happy with your son's performance and decide to give him benefits to keep him.

He doesn't have to worry about health insurance, thanks to the ACA and me. He only has to worry about paying the other bills. Thanks for feedback !

The union was very strict on who could be considered part time. It was cheaper to pay a part-time employee straight-time for 35 hours and then overtime for anything else rather than make them full time. I know grocery stores don't pay as well as they used to but they are a decent first time job. Fairly steady hours especially if he is willing to work the overnight shift stocking shelves. ( I say this with no real knowledge about their current hourly wage/rate schedule. I have heard from a few people that still work in supermarkets that the new contracts are full of givebacks rather than increased benefits.)

He knows it's not easy to get a job and he needs the work badly. He's young, strong and healthy, so he can do almost anything. I'll be overjoyed if he can land one full-time job instead of two or three PT ones. Thanks again !

Now or in the near future? Has some idea what he wants to be in life if he's not going to college?

It may make more sense in the long-run to take the 1 PT job and either volunteer or take a (paid or unpaid) internship. The experience will get him into the FT job-market with marketable skills faster than trying to build the skills and experience needed in a series of PT jobs.

There's also AmeriCorps. That has the benefit that it does a bunch of things: it provides an education stipend at the end of the year in addition to a frankly-low salary ($16K) for a FT job, it provides a number of benefits ranging from student-loan forbearance (not really useful in this case unless he already has educational loans), childcare assistance, some (few) programs provide living quarters (those tend to be 24/7 community-embedded jobs), most provide health benefits, many programs hire their best AmeriCorps staffers to F/T positions and it gives him one year of preferential status for hiring for federal positions.

http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps

Good suggestions, thank you !

food service and wallyworld only hire part time, landscaping plenty of full time positions but it is HARD outdoor work for low pay

one son moved to Tucson, still doing landscape work but better company/position, the other got on at one of the few real companies around here, and it is union. EXCEPT his position is with a contractor and he can expect to wait several years before getting hired by the actual company. still a good gig for around here. (law enforcement about all else there is)

third kid is getting by on part time restaurant work with some extra hours when anybody takes unplanned time off. family owned joint.

AmeriCorps positions in AZ. http://1.usa.gov/1fSTeDQ

Some are better than others admittedly, but I'm a staunch supporter of AmeriCorps as a gateway to meaningful employment in service to the community. It's one of those programs I think should be compulsory...we'd kill conservatism dead in one generation if every 18-24 year old had to do a minimum of one year of national service.

but at the time trail building was about it

I also know recent high school graduates who desperately want full time work and can only find part time retail and food service.

Virtually all of them are working 2 jobs.

Of course the new trend in retail is that you are "on call" every day. So you aren't ever scheduled, you're called if the store gets busy which means you can't ever get a second job because you don't know when you'll be needed at the store.

Really sucks.