underemployment
Definition
Noun (uncountable):
- Insufficient utilization of labor: "underemployment" refers to a situation in which employed individuals are working fewer hours than they would like or in jobs that do not fully utilize their skills, education, or experience.
- Economic condition: It describes a state where workers are not fully employed in terms of hours, productivity, or income, often as a broader measure of labor market slack than unemployment.
Usage Examples
- (Many graduates are working fewer hours or in low-skill jobs despite their qualifications.)
- (It is a subtler form of labor underutilization.)
- (The policy seeks to address the mismatch between workers’ abilities and their actual employment.)
Advanced Usage
- "Disguised underemployment": A situation where workers appear to be employed but their productivity is low or their jobs are redundant.
- In some rural areas, disguised underemployment occurs when multiple family members share a single farm’s work. (Workers are formally employed but contribute little to output.)
- "Cyclical underemployment": Underemployment caused by economic downturns, such as recessions.
- During the recession, cyclical underemployment rose as companies reduced hours for existing staff. (The drop in demand led to reduced work hours.)
Variants and Related Words
- Underemployed (adj): describing a person who is employed but not fully utilized.
- She is underemployed in her current job, which requires only basic skills despite her advanced degree. (Her job does not match her qualifications.)
- Underemploy (verb): to use someone in a job that does not fully use their skills or abilities.
- The company tends to underemploy its engineers by assigning them routine tasks. (The company does not fully utilize their expertise.)
Synonyms
- Underutilization: the failure to use something to its full potential.
- Labor slack: a general term for unused labor capacity, covering both unemployment and underemployment.
- Part-time work: often a form of underemployment when involuntarily chosen.
Related Idioms
- "Working below one’s pay grade": doing work that is less skilled or less demanding than one’s qualifications or typical role.
- After the layoff, he took a job working below his pay grade, a clear sign of underemployment. (He accepted a less demanding job than his experience warranted.)
- "A square peg in a round hole": a person whose skills or temperament are not suited to their job, often implying underemployment.
- She feels like a square peg in a round hole at the factory, as her engineering degree is wasted. (Her skills are not used appropriately.)