Underemployment
Underemployment is a key job seeker support issue that concerns EUSF. Underemployment affects many EUSF members who seek jobs even though they are employed currently. Perhaps, understanding underemployment will benefit your job search too. Read what the experts have written about the subject.
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Underemployment Series.One
The good news is that an underemployed worker has a job. The bad news is that the job is insufficient. Underemployment can be understood several different ways. One example is the worker who is either overqualified or overeducated for his or her job requirements. In a larger, economic sense, underemployment also refers to business situations where employees do not have enough to do, but their employer keeps them on the payroll rather than training new workers when conditions improve. Many times, underemployment simply describes the situation where part-time workers are not able--for any number of reasons--to get as many hours as they need to cover their living expenses.
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Overqualified
During the recent recession, EUSF saw many experienced professionals interview for jobs that would put them in the underemployed category. These mid- and late-career professionals seemed resigned to underemployment the longer they were out of work. It happens. One article on how to interview when you are overqualified for the job advises
Source: "How to Answer Key Interview Questions When You’re Overqualified" by John Rossheim, monster.com. Overeducated
San Francisco is an especially competitive job market in 2016. Recent college grads, representing even greater numbers than the mid-and late-career professionals, are still finding work in a field that relates to their degree difficult to find. With bills and school loans to pay, it’s expected for the recent college grad to gratefully accept a job that requires only a high school diploma. Yes, it’s good to get your foot in the door. But like it or not, that thinking lands many recent grads in the underemployed category. For some recent grads, getting a job depends on their degree (i.e. a liberal arts major will always find the job market more competitive than a STEM major in the Bay Area). Advice for recent grads without much actual experience who find themselves having to compete with experienced professionals is to
Source: "Newest crop of college grads may find underemployment easing a bit" by Ylan Q. Mui, washingtonpost.com, 5/22/2015. The Filler Job
At EUSF we often discuss how to refer to the survival job in a way that sounds less desperate. That means we know you may really need the job, but we hope you know that you don’t have to take every job offered to you. We believe that there will be more interviews and job offers if you keep at it. Still, why not learn to identify red flags that signal a company would not be a good place to work, even if you get the offer of a job there. Some warning signs a potential bad boss might display during your interviews include
Source: "10 Warning Signs of a Toxic Boss at the Interview" by Margot Carmichael Lester, monster.com, bls.gov. |
Underemployment Series.Two
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Underutilization of Labor: Hard to Track
Underemployment is hard to track if you just consider the conventional unemployment rate. Since the 1940s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has figured the unemployment rate as a percentage of potential workers (the Civilian Labor Force) within the total Civilian Population. The Civilian Labor force is the number of all persons in the population between the ages of 16 and retirement who are not active duty military, or in an institution (e.g. jails, mental hospitals, or homes for the aged). To determine the number of people who are not employed, the number of employed people is subtracted from the number of people in the Civilian Labor Force. The conventional unemployment rate is the percentage resulting from the number of those not employed divided by total number in the Civilian Labor Force. In the third quarter of 2015, that percentage was 5.4% in the US, 6.5% in California, and 3.6% in San Francisco. Source: US Employment Statistics – March 2015 Alternative Measures of Underutilization
However, the official unemployment rate tells only part of the story. It doesn’t give information about the employment conditions of those who are seasonal workers, temporary workers, the underemployed. The unemployment rates for those groups are tracked by the BLS’ U-1, U-2, U-3, U-4, U-5, & U-6 measures (the U stands for Underutilization). These percentages are averaged over four fiscal quarters. U-1 through U-6 are additive and give the broader view of unemployment in the US. While the conventional unemployment rate was determined to be 5.4 % in the US for the third quarter of 2015, the more inclusive U-6 was 10.8 % in the US, and 13.3% in all of California. Source: "Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States, Fourth Quarter 2014 through Third Quarter of 2015 Averages", 10/23/2015. |
Underemployment Series.Three
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Political Ground: The upcoming 2016 presidential election reveals bi-partisan political views on underemployment.
When Donald Trump, a candidate prominent in the Republican runoff, comments that the real Unemployment Rate is 40%, he might be speaking about the selective use of measures of unemployment. Still, this is still a reference to another broad measurement of unemployment. This measure is the Employed to Population Ratio which in March 2015 was just under 60%. Over time, this measure reflects demographic events like when middle-class women entered in the workforce and when large segments of the population aged and retired from work. Indeed, the remaining 40% of the civilian population not participating in the workforce in 2015 includes those who have stopped looking for work because he/she believes that there is no job for them out there. These people are the “Dissapointed Workers” tracked by the BLS in the U-4 measure. Reasons for giving up might include
Source: "Donald Trump is right: America’s real unemployment rate is 40%" by Chris Matthews, fortune.com, 9/23/2015. Bi-Partisan View II
The Democratic Party’s front runner, Hillary Clinton, has also addressed the dramatic changes in America’s workforce. In 2015’s first Democratic candidate debate, she referred to the ideas expressed in a 2013 article available on Huff Post, “Saving Capitalism from Itself”. The article describes the industrial economy based on the contributions of the production class, the managerial middle-class, and the business owner class. Our economy benefited from efforts to raise the living standards and stabilize the production class. However, today, one reads about the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and how America’s middle- class is shrinking. The production class still has its hard-won benefits but now represents only 20% the total workforce. What has transpired since the start of the recession is that Service sector jobs have grown. Additionally, the demographics of the Service sector has changed dramatically through underemployment. To save capitalism from itself, the article argues that the Service sector’s living standards must be raised and stabilized to benefit the economy overall. Several of the ways to do that include allowing Service sector workers a higher minimum wage and insuring their access to benefits that they can take with them wherever they work. Source: "Saving Capitalism from Itself" by Richard Florida, huffingtonpost.com, 5/23/2013. |
Underemployment Series.Four
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Part-time workers who want more hours
Part-time workers fall into two categories: Voluntary and Involuntary. By choice, some voluntary part-time workers are easing out of the workforce at the end of full careers. Still others accept part-time work because it helps them achieve their desired work/life balance. However, the part-time worker who accepts fewer hours involuntarily is actually in the underemployed category. Advice to the involuntary part-time worker is
Source: "5 Reasons You Should Always Be Looking for a New Job" by Jessica Kleinman, forbes.com, 9/28/2015. |