More Americans Move to Full-Time Employment

New York, NY, Jan. 10, 2012 -- More Americans are moving from part-time to full-time jobs, another sign that the labor market may begin showing more strength, according to a Bloomberg News story.

The number of people working full-time rose to 113.8 million in December, the most since February 2009, the Labor Department said.

Also, 8.1 million worked fewer hours because they couldn’t find a full-time job, the least since January 2009.

While the unemployment rate fell 0.5 percentage point over the past three months, going from 9% to 8.5%, the "underemployment rate," which includes part-time employees who’d prefer a full-time job, dropped by 1.2 percentage points to reach 15.2%.