There’s a shift going on in the job market as more and more people are opting for part-time jobs. Whether you are a striving student, a retiree needing to supplement your income or a parent desiring more time with your family, workers are finding their comfort zone in flexible part-time jobs.
Over the past years, many professionals working a part-time job felt like a skilled nobody. Besides low pay, and scanty work areas, the part-timer was quite often treated as insignificant, never quite feeling like they belonged. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that could be a thing of the past as employers are beginning to realize the financial and time-saving advantages of employing a part-time person. With increasing demands expected over the next 10 years, that means flexible schedules and better pay for the part-timers.
So how do you find the ideal part-time job in today’s job market? Here are some ideas for worthwhile, well-compensated part-time jobs that offer a promising future.
Transit and Intercity Bus Driver
Working as a Transit bus driver can be ideal for anyone who wants a flexible schedule, good pay and benefits, as well as the satisfaction of performing a valuable service for their community. Many drivers enjoy having full responsibility for their bus and passengers without direct supervision. From my own experience of riding an express metro bus back and forth to Seattle each day, I have never come across a discontented driver.
Pharmacy Techs work in hospitals, health care facilities and retail pharmacies helping licensed pharmacists prepare the prescriptions given to patients. Routine tasks usually consist of counting pills and labeling medicine bottles, looking after inventory and patient records and other administrative duties.
With so many working places to choose from, scheduling choices are in your favor. You can expect higher pay for weekend or holiday shifts or if you are certified.
Tax preparers assist people and businesses in filing their yearly income tax return. Although seasonal (mid-January to mid-April), depending on how many hours you work, you can bring in a pretty sizeable income in just the first year. Many large tax-preparation firms offer income tax courses and employment in their store offices.
Retail Store Clerk
The retail industry staffs part-time employees in department stores nationwide. Many of the popular stores, such as J.C Penney, Macys and Target, offer benefits to part-time staff who work at least 20 hours per week. Duties of a retail store clerk usually consist of assisting customers with information about products, helping them to find what they need, and operating a cash register.
Personal and Home-Care Aide (Caregiver)
Personal and home-care aides work in the homes of elderly or disabled people who need help in performing daily tasks. The amount of time spent on a job varies from patient to patient with some only requiring a few hours of assistance per day or week. You can choose to work for patients whose schedules are compatible with your schedule.
Library Assistant
Check your local library for a peaceful, flexible part-time job. Library assistants check out books, reshelf returned books, oversee the care of library material and notify customers of overdue items. Hours vary by library.
Part-Time Child Care
There are many demands for child care in which a parent has an unusual work schedule. Some may work nights and require a few hours of care for their children during the day while they sleep. Others may telecommute part of the week and only need day care for certain days. Children of divorced parents may have a split custody arrangement that doesn’t cover all the bases. There is a market for tailored arrangements that works well for both sides. Also, many parents have a need for weekend day care which can be very difficult to obtain.
Office Assistant
Working part-time in an office offers many appealing options. Duties may include answering telephones, typing, filing, light accounting or assisting with the office overload. Flexible working arrangement are usually attainable.
Stay Where You Are
Often times, the best place to find a good part-time job is to explore options within the company where you are currently working full-time. You probably have some leverage if your employer is already happy with your work. He may feel it is better to accommodate a valuable employee who wants to work part-time than it is to have the person quit.
Another flexible part-time option is to convert your existing job into a telecommuting job arrangement. Most telecommuters work from home two or three days a week and telecommute the rest of the week.
What About Benefits?
If you are considering switching to part-time work, you don’t necessarily have to give up benefits in exchange for more flexibility. More and more companies today are offering benefits to part-time employees in order to attract highly-qualified workers. You may have to put in a necessary number of hours of work in order to qualify for a certain benefit package, but the payback could be well worth it.
If you are a busy parent, recent retiree or one of many Americans finding it more and more difficult to fit a full-time job into your daily life routine, working part time can be a good way of balancing your work and your personal obligations. A flexible part-time job can provide monetary gain and still allow you to manage your day without getting frazzled.
