eurostat news release 63/2013
Among the 43 million part-time workers in the EU27 in 2012, 9.2 million wished to work more hours, were available to do so and can therefore be considered to be underemployed. Since the start of the economic crisis the proportion of part-time workers wishing to work more hours and available to do so has grown steadily, from 18.5% in 2008 to 20.5% in 2011 and 21.4% in 2012.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
Showing posts with label under-employment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label under-employment. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Rethinking underemployment and overqualification in organizations: The not so ugly truth
an article by Katina W. Thompson, Pamela L. Perrewé and Gerald R. Ferris (Florida State University, Tallahassee), Thomas H. Shea (Right Management, Fort Lauderdale) and David M. Sikora (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) published in Business Horizons
Volume 56 Issue 1 (January–February 2013)
Abstract
What comes to mind when you hear the term underemployment?
Does a slight, disapproving frown purse your lips?
Does pity flood your heart?
Or do forgotten mental notations to study the topic permeate your brain?
Although we are intimately familiar with unemployment and its effects, we are much less aware of underemployment and its impact on people and organisations.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January 2012, underemployment was estimated to affect more than 10 million people in the American civilian labour force. Its magnitude suggests that underemployment is a significant issue for all involved.
By combining practical experiences from an outplacement firm (Right Management, headed by Thomas H Shea as above) and what we have learned from academic research, we herein describe five types of underemployment, discuss widely held assumptions about the issue, and offer suggestions regarding ways that organisations might harness the power of this economy-wide phenomenon.
Hazel’s comment:
It is, of course, not only in the USA that underemployment is a problem for many people. There are significant challenges faced by many people in the UK as well.
Related posts:
Involuntary part-time workers in Britain
Chasing graduate jobs?
Abstract
What comes to mind when you hear the term underemployment?
Does a slight, disapproving frown purse your lips?
Does pity flood your heart?
Or do forgotten mental notations to study the topic permeate your brain?
Although we are intimately familiar with unemployment and its effects, we are much less aware of underemployment and its impact on people and organisations.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January 2012, underemployment was estimated to affect more than 10 million people in the American civilian labour force. Its magnitude suggests that underemployment is a significant issue for all involved.
By combining practical experiences from an outplacement firm (Right Management, headed by Thomas H Shea as above) and what we have learned from academic research, we herein describe five types of underemployment, discuss widely held assumptions about the issue, and offer suggestions regarding ways that organisations might harness the power of this economy-wide phenomenon.
Hazel’s comment:
It is, of course, not only in the USA that underemployment is a problem for many people. There are significant challenges faced by many people in the UK as well.
Related posts:
Involuntary part-time workers in Britain
Chasing graduate jobs?
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Financial crisis, five years on: the poorest pay the price
via JRF - Combined Feed by Julia Unwin
The great price of this financial crisis has been paid by the poorest, who did least to contribute to it.
It’s exactly five years ago since “the day the world changed”. Most of us can remember where we were when the first rumblings of economic disaster were heard, when images of finance workers leaving offices clutching cardboard boxes adorned our screens. But most of us had little inkling that, half a decade later, the impacts of the crisis would feel like a long-term new reality.
Financial insecurity, a double-dip recession and repeated setbacks have become so much part of our world that few now seriously imagine that we have any prospect of snapping back to a pre-recession world.
But away from the bankers in the headlights, behind the stories of tumbling markets and shares, there is another story, one that has been little exposed on this most miserable of anniversaries. The reality of what has happened to people and places in poverty is the story that needs to be told, and with just as much emphasis.
So how does the evidence unravel in this sorry tale?
Throughout this period, JRF has been tracking people’s expectations for a decent standard of living, known as the Minimum Income Standard. The first report, published just before the economic crisis broke, used data gathered in 2007. Modest expectations, a very firm grip on reality, and balancing the household budget were the headlines that year. But since then, the ability to meet those very similar needs has got demonstrably harder. So much so that 15 million people are living below the minimum income standard – three million more than in 2008.
JRF research hasn’t just tracked expectations:
The great price of this grim reality is paid by the poorest, those who did least to contribute to the crisis we are in. Looking ahead to the next five years, the price they are paying will be felt long after even this apparently deepening, double-dip recession is over.
The great price of this financial crisis has been paid by the poorest, who did least to contribute to it.
It’s exactly five years ago since “the day the world changed”. Most of us can remember where we were when the first rumblings of economic disaster were heard, when images of finance workers leaving offices clutching cardboard boxes adorned our screens. But most of us had little inkling that, half a decade later, the impacts of the crisis would feel like a long-term new reality.
Financial insecurity, a double-dip recession and repeated setbacks have become so much part of our world that few now seriously imagine that we have any prospect of snapping back to a pre-recession world.
But away from the bankers in the headlights, behind the stories of tumbling markets and shares, there is another story, one that has been little exposed on this most miserable of anniversaries. The reality of what has happened to people and places in poverty is the story that needs to be told, and with just as much emphasis.
So how does the evidence unravel in this sorry tale?
Throughout this period, JRF has been tracking people’s expectations for a decent standard of living, known as the Minimum Income Standard. The first report, published just before the economic crisis broke, used data gathered in 2007. Modest expectations, a very firm grip on reality, and balancing the household budget were the headlines that year. But since then, the ability to meet those very similar needs has got demonstrably harder. So much so that 15 million people are living below the minimum income standard – three million more than in 2008.
JRF research hasn’t just tracked expectations:
- We also track the reality of 50 poverty and social exclusion indicators using publicly available data. With the downturn came levels of unemployment not seen for the best part of 20 years, but what the crash has exacerbated is long-term and underlying trends of underemployment.
- We know jobs that carry decent wages are an essential starting point in climbing out of poverty ’ yet part-time and short-term work, while useful, do little to address this.
- The dire state of the labour market, and JRF’s projections, suggest that by 2020 things will get a lot worse unless we have a dramatically different set of policy interventions.
The great price of this grim reality is paid by the poorest, those who did least to contribute to the crisis we are in. Looking ahead to the next five years, the price they are paying will be felt long after even this apparently deepening, double-dip recession is over.
Monday, 28 May 2012
Involuntary part-time workers in Britain: evidence from the labour force survey
an article by Surhan Cam (School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University) published in Industrial Relations Journal Volume 43 Issue 3 (May 2012)
Abstract
Part-time employment is widely considered functional for the economy, with both benign and detrimental implications for employees. However, specific analyses of involuntary part-time work in Britain are surprisingly absent from the flexibility debate, and workers in such positions remain largely under-researched.
This article explores involuntary part-time employment in relation to socio-economic circumstances.
We analyse Labour Force Survey data, using logistic regression modelling to identify the segments of workers filling part-time jobs involuntarily. The results suggest that involuntariness for part-time jobs is affected by a range of demographic and work-related characteristics considered.
Being a couple with dependent children, for example, reduces the likelihood of involuntariness among female part-time employees whereas lower educational and occupational levels imply a higher involuntariness across both sexes.
Abstract
Part-time employment is widely considered functional for the economy, with both benign and detrimental implications for employees. However, specific analyses of involuntary part-time work in Britain are surprisingly absent from the flexibility debate, and workers in such positions remain largely under-researched.
This article explores involuntary part-time employment in relation to socio-economic circumstances.
We analyse Labour Force Survey data, using logistic regression modelling to identify the segments of workers filling part-time jobs involuntarily. The results suggest that involuntariness for part-time jobs is affected by a range of demographic and work-related characteristics considered.
Being a couple with dependent children, for example, reduces the likelihood of involuntariness among female part-time employees whereas lower educational and occupational levels imply a higher involuntariness across both sexes.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Chasing graduate jobs?
Centre for Population Change Working Paper Number 16
by Irene Mosca (Trinity College Dublin) and Robert E Wright (University of Strathclyde and member of the ESRC Centre for Population Change)
Abstract
This paper examines empirically the relationship between under-employment and migration amongst five cohorts of graduates of Scottish higher education institutions with micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency. The data indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between migration and graduate employment – those graduates who move after graduation from Scotland to the rest of the UK or abroad have a much higher rate of graduate employment.
Versions of probit regression are used to estimate migration and graduate employment equations in order to explore the nature of this relationship further. These equations confirm that there is a strong positive relationship between the probability of migrating and the probability of being in graduate employment even after other factors are controlled for. Instrumental variables estimation is used to examine the causal nature of the relationship by attempting to deal with the potential endogeneity of migration decisions.
Overall the analysis is consistent with the hypotheses that a sizeable fraction of higher education graduates are leaving Scotland for employment reasons. In turn this finding suggests the over-education/under-employment nexus is a serious problem in Scotland.
Full text (PDF 23pp)
JEL Classification I23, J24, J61, R23
by Irene Mosca (Trinity College Dublin) and Robert E Wright (University of Strathclyde and member of the ESRC Centre for Population Change)
Abstract
This paper examines empirically the relationship between under-employment and migration amongst five cohorts of graduates of Scottish higher education institutions with micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency. The data indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between migration and graduate employment – those graduates who move after graduation from Scotland to the rest of the UK or abroad have a much higher rate of graduate employment.
Versions of probit regression are used to estimate migration and graduate employment equations in order to explore the nature of this relationship further. These equations confirm that there is a strong positive relationship between the probability of migrating and the probability of being in graduate employment even after other factors are controlled for. Instrumental variables estimation is used to examine the causal nature of the relationship by attempting to deal with the potential endogeneity of migration decisions.
Overall the analysis is consistent with the hypotheses that a sizeable fraction of higher education graduates are leaving Scotland for employment reasons. In turn this finding suggests the over-education/under-employment nexus is a serious problem in Scotland.
Full text (PDF 23pp)
JEL Classification I23, J24, J61, R23
Monday, 13 February 2012
Is Graduate Under-employment Persistent? Evidence from the United Kingdom
a discussion paper (No 6177) by Irene Mosca (TILDA, Trinity College Dublin) and Robert E. Wright (University of Strathclyde and IZA) published in November 2011 by Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (Institute for the Study of Labor)
Abstract
This paper examines the persistence of under-employment amongst UK higher education graduates. For the cohort of individuals who graduated in 2002/3, micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency, are used to calculate the rates of “non-graduate job” employment 6 months and 42 months after graduation. A logit regression analysis suggests the underemployment is not a short-term phenomenon and is systematically related to a set of observable characteristics. It is also found that under-employment 6 months after graduation is positively related to under-employment 42 months after graduation, which is consistent with the view that the nature of the first job after graduation is important in terms of occupational attainment later in the life-cycle.
Full text (PDF 14pp)
Abstract
This paper examines the persistence of under-employment amongst UK higher education graduates. For the cohort of individuals who graduated in 2002/3, micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency, are used to calculate the rates of “non-graduate job” employment 6 months and 42 months after graduation. A logit regression analysis suggests the underemployment is not a short-term phenomenon and is systematically related to a set of observable characteristics. It is also found that under-employment 6 months after graduation is positively related to under-employment 42 months after graduation, which is consistent with the view that the nature of the first job after graduation is important in terms of occupational attainment later in the life-cycle.
Full text (PDF 14pp)
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Effects of unemployment and underemployment on …
material hardship in single-mother families
an article by Mary Keegan Eamon and Chi-Fang Wu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) published in Children and Youth Services Review Volume 33 Issue 2 (February 2011)
Abstract
Using data from the 2004 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study examined relationships between employment problems and four types of material hardship among single-mother families. Although a bill-paying hardship was the most common hardship reported by the mothers (41%), 38% of the families experienced a health hardship, 33% suffered a food hardship, and 25% had a housing hardship. The multivariate results indicate that compared with families whose mothers were adequately employed, families whose mothers were unemployed/had involuntary job gaps and were underemployed had heightened risks of experiencing bill-paying, health, and housing hardships. Only unemployment/involuntary job gaps was related to having a food hardship. A number of other factors associated with experiencing material hardship also were identified. Finally, implications for social work practice and social policy are discussed.
Abstract
Using data from the 2004 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study examined relationships between employment problems and four types of material hardship among single-mother families. Although a bill-paying hardship was the most common hardship reported by the mothers (41%), 38% of the families experienced a health hardship, 33% suffered a food hardship, and 25% had a housing hardship. The multivariate results indicate that compared with families whose mothers were adequately employed, families whose mothers were unemployed/had involuntary job gaps and were underemployed had heightened risks of experiencing bill-paying, health, and housing hardships. Only unemployment/involuntary job gaps was related to having a food hardship. A number of other factors associated with experiencing material hardship also were identified. Finally, implications for social work practice and social policy are discussed.
Hazel’s comment:
Some of my close friends are aware that I spent two periods of my life as a single parent. Initially with two small children and later with those plus two others when they were in their teens. Neither time was easy and I can identify with the bill-paying problem – if it hadn't been for the support of family and friends I’d have gone under so how those without this social support network cope with the situation I don’t know. Government/statutory support in the form of benefits is, of course, of practical assistance but does not provide any emotional support.
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