A friend of mine is hoping she’ll find a full-time job upon graduating from her masters program in social work this May and I was trying to convince her that an alternative – and perhaps more fulfilling – route would be to piece together her work days with various jobs consisting of clinical therapy work a few days a week, child care in the evenings and something else she’d enjoy. While a traditional full-time job that lets you come home at 5pm and have your weekends off  was the most attractive option for my friend, I worried she wouldn’t be able to depend on it. 

Working part-time jobs full-time is how a growing number of American workers (including yours truly) are reconfiguring their work lives, as unemployment filings edge higher month after month. Sure, our unemployment rate surprisingly fell from 10.0% to 9.7% in January, but a CNNmoney.com story today says the duration of unemployment reached an all-time high, according to the Labor Department’s data. In the meantime, what’s a person to do other than piece together a career one shift at a time?