The number of people working part time for economic reasons is up dramatically over the past year. For example, people who want to work full time but can only find part-time employment fall into this category. This is another case of how the employment picture is actually much worse than the government states. Why? Because these individuals show up as employed, and are not counted in the unemployment rate. However, in most cases they are substantially underemployed.
Source: Data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics report A-7. Employed persons by class of worker and part-time status, seasonally adjusted.