Bloomberg (01/09/12) Homan, Timothy

An increasing number of U.S. workers are moving from part-time to full-time jobs. While the number of people putting in a full week rose to 113.8 million in December, the most since February 2009, 8.1 million worked fewer hours because they could not find a full-time job, the least since January 2009. “It’s what will traditionally happen when the job market overall is beginning to improve,” says Tig Gilliam, chief executive officer of Adecco Group North America.

The underemployment rate, which includes part-time employees who would prefer a full-time job, dropped from 16.4% to 15.2%. “By moving into more permanent positions, you get a more productive work force,” says Michael Gapen, a senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. “It makes labor more valuable and that means moderate wage growth, even with the unemployment rate at 8.5%. That translates into better consumption momentum entering this year.”

Gilliam says his industry “is still seeing double-digit growth in permanent placements and conversions” from part-time and temporary to full-time employment. “When the market gets that much better, the direct hiring accelerates even more,” he says.

Crain’s New York Business (New York) (01/09/12) Fioravante, Janice

An increasing number of New York City law firms are turning to contract help. The economic climate has prompted many corporate law firms to run so lean that they have to outsource legal work. According to the National Law Journal’s April survey, almost 2,900 fewer lawyers worked for the nation’s largest 250 law firms in 2010; about 6,600 attorneys departed such employment in 2009.

With so many large law firms located in the city, there is a wide talent pool, extending from laid-off lawyers to recent law school graduates with prestigious degrees who are having difficulty obtaining associate positions. While $60 to $80 an hour was the prerecession norm for contract lawyers, current rates have dipped to between $32 and $40, and sometimes are as low as $25. Providers of contract help say that they see no signs of the trend slowing down, as staffing firms outbid each other to be the lowest-cost suppliers of legal talent, in a process called reverse bidding.

“Corporations are refusing to pay $250 an hour for first- or second-year attorneys,” says Courtney Sapire, a co-founder of RFx Legal, which automates the process of finding contract lawyers and offers other services. “They want the level of expertise to match the task that they’re billing for.”

New York Times (01/10/12) Pear, Robert

National health spending increased by a slight 3.9% in 2010, reports the Obama administration, as Americans delayed hospital care, doctor’s visits and prescription drug purchases for the second year in a row. Lingering effects of the recession reduced the explosive growth of health spending, which totaled $2.6 trillion in 2010. Health spending normally grows much faster than the economy, but in 2010 growth rates were similar, so that health care accounted for the same share of total economic output in 2009 and 2010.

“U.S. health spending grew more slowly in 2009 and 2010” than at any other time in the 51 years the government has been collecting such data, said Anne Martin, an economist in the office of the actuary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Medicare spending grew in 2010 by 5%, the smallest rate of increase in more than a decade, the report said, citing a slowdown in spending for the managed care program known as Medicare Advantage. Government economists said President Obama’s health care overhaul had little impact on the overall level of health spending and, in some cases, simply shifted payments from one source to another.

Dow Jones Newswires (01/09/12) Lamar, Mia

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reports that retail hiring for the holidays jumped 15% over the same period in 2010. The sector recorded a net gain of 718,500 workers over the final three months of the year, according to the firm’s analysis of employment data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, just short of the 720,800 workers added in 2007, when the U.S. economy was still relatively strong.

Job gains in the retail sector this year were better than anticipated, according to the firm’s chief executive, John Challenger, who noted early sales and strong performance on the Black Friday sales day likely contributed to added workers in December. Still, he cautioned those gains could fade in the months ahead. “Now, the question is whether the consumer will go into post-holiday hibernation. Several retail experts have predicted that this year could see particularly weak January sales, as Americans try to recover from holiday spending, much of which was on credit cards,” Challenger stated.