“Alcoa to cut 13,500 jobs”…another recession headline confirms unemployment will continue to get worse for a while yet. Outright cuts make the big news. But some companies hitting rough times have taken a gentler approach. Their workers have kept their jobs…

But their paychecks are shrinking.

More and more Americans have become involuntary part timers. Some of these half-fortunate workers looked for full time work, but were only able to find part-time employment. Most of them are still in the same job but working less. Goodbye to the rich time-and-a-half overtime work. These involuntary part-timers are even losing straight-time hours.

An involuntary part-timer, also known as an “underemployed” person in the statistics, is someone who wanted a full-time job but works 35 or…