In light of the weakening of the U.S. job market in recent years, the creation of new jobs is a crucial issue for many Americans.

The New York Times reported the Labor Department states more than one million of the 1.2 million new jobs created this year were part time. This raises concerns among those who may have to take these jobs instead of full-time work. The threat of part-time work after college, however, does not appear to concern some college graduates.

“Part-time work is still a very small part of total employment in the U.S. I am sure that for liberal arts grads this is increasing, but probably not dramatically,” Erik Wright, a University of Wisconsin professor of sociology, wrote in an e-mail.

Wright said the majors students choose may affect employment prospects more than the current job market.

“Many liberal arts majors are not job oriented,” Wright said. “For undergrads who major in career-oriented majors … the job market is still pretty good.”

Michael Handel, a UW assistant professor of sociology, agreed college students are not in much danger of being forced to take part-time jobs after graduation.

“I believe that the fraction of part-time jobs is relatively stable and there has not been a large increase [in] the number of college grads forced to take such jobs,” Handel said in an e-mail.

Some may say there are many benefits to part-time work, especially as a college student, but some students do not want to continue this work after graduation. UW sophomore Stephanie Bergo says her part-time job as a lab assistant at University Hospital “breaks up the monotonous task of going to class, coming home and doing homework.”

“If it’s part time or nothing, I would take part time, but it wouldn’t be my preference,” Bergo said of her career after graduation.

UW sophomore Jenni Schnuck works part time as a lifeguard at the South East Recreational Facility, and said she did not look forward to keeping a part-time job after her senior year.

“I don’t want one after graduation,” she said.

Some might attribute the weakness of the full-time job market to outsourcing, or the movement of full-time U.S. jobs to other countries, but neither Wright nor Handel thinks outsourcing is a large threat to college graduates.

“This will have a bigger impact on less skilled occupations than on the kinds of work that college graduates do,” Wright said.

Handel said although some businesses are trying to cut costs by outsourcing higher-wage, white-collar work, “the attention it has received is probably disproportionate to its real scale.”

Bergo and Schnuck said they were not worried about outsourcing. They did not think the type of work they wanted to do was at risk of being outsourced.

Health care is also a concern for those in part-time jobs. Most part-time jobs do not provide health care, according to The New York Times. Wright and Handel both acknowledge health-care coverage is decreasing in this country, but they also agree that this is much less of a problem for college graduates.

Neither Schnuck nor Bergo had serious concerns about health insurance. Schnuck said she was “a little” worried. Bergo, though she said some might lower their job expectations to get health care, was not worried.

“Health insurance probably isn’t my top priority,” she said. “Most full-time jobs offer some sort of medical coverage, even if you’re working at McDonald’s.”