The drop we see here has mostly to do with the seasonal nature of a lot of the work in the category. The end of retail shopping season is the major cause of the decline. The trend remains intact.
In case you were wondering, the Bureau of Labor Statistics under this definition to create these figures. “Persons who usually work part-time for non-economic reasons such as childcare problems, family or personal obligations, school or training, retirement or Social Security limits on earnings, and other reasons. This excludes persons who usually work full time but worked only 1 to 34 hours during the reference week for reasons such as vacations, illness, and bad weather.”
