The unemployment rate is a relatively modest 5.5%. But that's because companies have figured out how to convert full-time employees who have benefits like health care into part-time ones who lack benefits and whose hours can be cut back at will. This is a great deal for companies and a lousy one for workers. And it is ultimately bad for investors.

The New York Times reports that 3.7 million Americans have seen their full-time jobs cut to part-time ones -- the highest number on record (the government started keeping track of this over 50 years ago). This record joins a host of others we've seen this year: record gasoline prices (over $4 a gallon), record Federal budget deficits ($490 billion for 2009), record Federal borrowing ($9.8 trillion soon to hit $10.6 trillion), a record decline in housing prices (15.8%), and a record weak dollar (down 71% to $1.5757 since January 2001 when one euro bought 92 cents).

The newly minted part-time workers are largely Hispanic men. Specifically, the Times points out that 73% of those who were forced into part-time work from the spring of 2007 to the spring of 2008 were men and 35% percent were Hispanic. The industries with the most part-time jobs were construction (28%), retail (14%) and professional and business services (13%).

The Times brings the part-time statistics to life with interviews. Here are two: