• Underemployment Trends
  • Background
  • Updates
  • Executive Summary
  • The data
  • Introduction
  • 1 Time-related underemployment
    • 1.1 Time-underemployment indicator 1: Involuntary part-time
      • 1.1.1 Time-underemployed part-time workers by sex
      • 1.1.2 Time-underemployed part-time workers by age group
      • 1.1.3 Time-underemployed part-time workers by ethnic group
      • 1.1.4 Time-underemployed part-time workers by qualification level
      • 1.1.5 Time- underemployed part-time workers by occupational group
      • 1.1.6 Time-underemployed part-time workers by contract type
      • 1.1.7 Regional trends in time-underemployment among part-time workers
      • 1.1.8 Industry trends in time-underemployment among part-time workers
    • 1.2 Time-underemployment indicator 2: Wanting longer hours
      • 1.2.1 Wanting more hours by sex
      • 1.2.2 Wanting more hours by age group
      • 1.2.3 Wanting more hours by ethnic group
      • 1.2.4 Wanting more hours by qualification level
      • 1.2.5 Wanting more hours by occupational group
      • 1.2.6 Wanting more hours by contract type
      • 1.2.7 Wanting more hours by part-time and full-time employment
      • 1.2.8 Wanting more hours by region
      • 1.2.9 Wanting more hours by industry
    • 1.3 Time-underemployment indicator 3: Seeking a replacement job with more hours
      • 1.3.1 Seeking a replacement job with more hours by sex
      • 1.3.2 Seeking a replacement job with more hours by age group
      • 1.3.3 Seeking a replacement job with more hours by ethnic group
      • 1.3.4 Seeking a replacement job with more hours by occupational group
    • 1.4 Summary: Time-related underemployment
  • 2 Skills-related underemployment
    • 2.1 Skills-related underemployment by sex
    • 2.2 Skills-related underemployment by age group
    • 2.3 Skills-related underemployment by ethnic group
    • 2.4 Skills-related underemployment by qualification level
    • 2.5 Skills-related underemployment by occupational group
    • 2.6 Skills-related underemployment by contract type
    • 2.7 Skills-related underemployment by region
    • 2.8 Skills-related underemployment by industry
    • 2.9 Summary: Skills-related underemployment
  • 3 Wage-related underemployment
    • 3.1 Wage-related underemployment by sex
    • 3.2 Wage-related underemployment by age group
    • 3.3 Wage-related underemployment by ethnic group
    • 3.4 Wage-related underemployment by qualification level
    • 3.5 Wage-related underemployment by occupational group
    • 3.6 Wage-related underemployment by region
    • 3.7 Wage-related underemployment by industry
    • 3.8 Summary: Wage-related underemployment
  • Conclusions and the way forward
  • Technical Appendix 1: The Data
  • Technical Appendix 2: Time-related underemployment
  • Technical Appendix 3: Skills-related underemployment
  • Technical Appendix 4: Wage-related underemployment
  • References
  • The Underemployment Project

Underemployment Levels and Trends: Time, skills, & wages

2 Skills-related underemployment

Our second dimension of underemployment is skills-related underemployment. We examine levels and trends over time in the number of workers who have skills that are greater than those required in their current job. We measure skills-related underemployment via one indicator we construct as follows:

  • Using education level data, we first group employees into those who have High, Intermediate and Low skill levels.

  • We group occupations into three skill levels: those that demand High, Intermediate and Low skills.

  • We consider employees as being skills-related underemployed when their education level is higher than the skill level required in their current occupation.

(See Technical Appendix 3: Skills-related underemployment for full details).