Jeb Bush wants the US economy to grow faster. How? By having Americans work longer hours.

The Republican presidential candidate told a forum in Manchester, New Hampshire, that his aspiration for the country if he is elected president is to generate 4% economic growth annually “as far as the eye can see, which means we have to be a lot more productive”.

“Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and through their productivity gain more income for their families,” he said.

Within hours, his remarks were being shared by Democrats on Twitter. “Enjoying some time away from work? Jeb Bush thinks Americans need to work longer hours,” the Democrats posted.



Enjoying some time away from work? Jeb Bush thinks Americans need to work longer hours: pic.twitter.com/2n8XwwvRcU — The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) July 8, 2015

Bush’s critics pointed to a Gallup poll conducted last year, which showed that full-time employees reported working an average of 47 hours per week.

But what about part-time workers? Was Bush telling the truth – do Americans need to work more hours?

The facts

Yes, America is still in a rut.

The unemployment rate has dropped to 5.3%, but there are still 8.3 million unemployed Americans and about 3.3 million “missing workers”. Missing workers are people who have stopped looking for work because they have given up hope of finding it. If these missing workers were counted, the unemployment rate would be closer to 7.3%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Bush is also correct that labor force participation is at a record low. Due to the missing workers, labor force participation last month was just 62.6% – the lowest since 1977. That’s compared with 66.5% in 2005 and 66.4% in 1995.

While labor participation is expected to improve in the coming months as the unemployment rate drops further, lifting Americans’ optimism about their chances of finding a job, most workers do not have the option of working more hours – at least not paid hours.

The number of part-time workers in the US has been climbing over the last two decades. In 1995, the number of part-time workers was about 20 million – with about 4.5 million of them working part-time because they couldn’t find a full-time job or because their employers had reduced their hours.

By 2015, there were 27 million part-time workers and 6.5 million of them wanted to work full-time.

The 2015 numbers are actually an improvement – in 2014, the number of those who were working part-time but wanted a full-time job was 7.5 million.

Some of them have looked to other jobs for additional hours. There are currently over 7 million people who work more than one job – about 302,000 work two full time jobs and 3.7 million work one full-time job and one part-time job.

Bush later defended his remarks, saying: “You can take it out of context all you want, but high-sustained growth means people work 40 hours rather than 30 hours and that by our success they have disposable income for their families to decide how they want to spend it rather than standing in line and being dependent upon government.”

Full-time work in the US is currently defined as 35 hours a week. On average, employees at private companies work about 34.5 hours a week.

Working 40 hours a week might be easier said than done.

Even as employees might want to work 40 hours a week to earn more in order to support their families, their employers might not give them the chance to do so, at least not for more pay.

In a recent survey of 743 HR professionals, the Society for Human Resources Management found that 14% of small businesses reduced part-time hours for employees due to the Affordable Care Act. Another 6% of employers plan to do so. At such companies, about 19% of employees were affected.

Workers’ rights advocates also argue that workers do not need longer hours, but instead need higher pay.

“Jeb Bush let us know he doesn’t have the faintest idea what it’s like to work hard for a living. To get that idea, he’s the one who has to work longer – at listening, at having at least a passing connection to reality in America,” Richard Trumka, president of AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, said on Thursday.

“American workers don’t need to work longer hours. They need to be paid better for their extremely hard work and long hours they already contribute to our economy.”

At the moment, US wages have been growing at little over 2%. For the economic recovery to be felt by all workers, wages have to grow 3% to 4%.