I've mentioned this several times before, I run a business that mostly employs people in this category. Obamacare IS the cause. As soon as it was passed we had corporate freaking the fuck out and cutting jobs and hours. After the Supreme Court said it was ok we had even more.
Come out of your shell into the real world. It's really hard for any of us to admit that something is actually bad when we've wanted to believe it's good. I get it. But we're never going to find a real solution until we can look at something logically, with a clear head, and call an apple an apple.