Many US workers still stuck in part-time jobs

[WASHINGTON] The labour market recovery that Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen seeks is proving incomplete as many US workers languish in part-time jobs.

The proportion of people working less than 35 hours a week for economic reasons in 2012 who found full-time work within a year fell to 49 per cent from 61 per cent in 2006, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

In addition, the almost three million Americans unemployed for at least 27 weeks are more likely to accept part-time jobs than counterparts out of work for shorter periods, according to a Chicago Fed paper.

That means that underemployment, a hallmark of the slow and uneven recovery from the recession, will not quickly dissipate, bac…