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Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because a
job
Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...
does not use the worker's skills, is part-time, or leaves the worker idle. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and
overqualification
Overqualification is the state of being educated beyond what is necessary or requested by an employer for a position with the business. There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees. This could be problematic for ...
, in which the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the job.
Underemployment has been studied from a variety of perspectives, including
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
,
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
,
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, and
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
. In economics, for example, the term underemployment has three different distinct meanings and applications. All of the meanings involve a situation in which a person is working, unlike
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
, where a person who is searching for work cannot find a
job
Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...
. All meanings involve under-utilization of labor which is missed by most official (governmental agency) definitions and measurements of
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
.
In economics, underemployment can refer to:
# "
Overqualification
Overqualification is the state of being educated beyond what is necessary or requested by an employer for a position with the business. There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees. This could be problematic for ...
", or "overeducation", or the
employment
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
of workers with high education,
skill
A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...
levels, or experience in jobs that do not require such abilities. For example, a trained
medical doctor
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
with a foreign credential who works as a
taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
driver would experience this type of underemployment.
# "Involuntary part-time" work, where workers who could (and would like to) be working for a full work-week can only find part-time work. By extension, the term is also used in
regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...
to describe regions where
economic activity
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
rates are unusually low, due to a lack of job opportunities,
training
Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...
opportunities, or due to a lack of services such as
childcare
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...
and
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
ation.
# "Overstaffing" or "hidden unemployment" or "disguised unemployment" (also called "labor hoarding"), the practice in which
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
es or entire
economies
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...
employ workers who are not fully occupied; for example, workers currently not being used to produce goods or services due to legal or social restrictions or because the work is highly seasonal.
Underemployment is a significant cause of
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
because although the worker may be able to find part-time work, the part-time pay may not be sufficient for basic needs. Underemployment is a problem particularly in
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
, where the unemployment rate is often quite low, as most workers are doing subsistence work or occasional part-time jobs. The global average of full-time workers per adult population is only 26%, compared to 30–52% in developed countries and 5–20% in most of Africa.
Underutilization of skills
In one usage, underemployment describes the
employment
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
of workers with high
skill
A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...
levels and
postsecondary education
Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...
who are working in relatively low-skilled,
low-wage job
The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...
s. For example, someone with a college
degree
Degree may refer to:
As a unit of measurement
* Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement
** Degree of geographical latitude
** Degree of geographical longitude
* Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics
...
may be
tending bar, or working as a
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
assembly line worker. That may result from the existence of
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
, which makes workers with bills to pay (and responsibilities) take almost any jobs available, even if they do not use their full talents. That can also occur with individuals who are being
discriminated against, lack appropriate
trade certification
Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply ''certification'' or ''qualification'', is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Not all certifications ...
or
academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, usually including unde ...
s (such as a
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
or
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
diploma
A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...
), have disabilities or mental illnesses, or have served time in
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
.
Two common situations that can lead to underemployment are
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
and new graduates. When highly trained immigrants arrive in a country, their foreign credentials may not be recognized or accepted in their new country, or they may have to do a lengthy or costly re-credentialing process. As a result, when doctors or engineers from other countries immigrate, they may be unable to work in their profession, and they may have to seek menial work. New graduates may also face underemployment because even though they have completed the technical training for a given field for which there is a good job market, they lack experience. Recent graduates with a master's degree in
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...
or
business administration
Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...
may have to work in a low-paid job as a
barista
A barista (; ; from the Italian/Spanish for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.
Etymology and inflection
The word ''barista'' comes from Italian where it means a male ...
or store clerk, which does not require a university degree, until they are able to find work in their professional field.
Another example of underemployment is someone who holds high skills for which there is low
market-place demand. While it is costly in terms of money and time to acquire
academic credentials, many types of degrees, particularly those in the
liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
, produce significantly more graduates than can be properly employed. Employers have responded to the oversupply of graduates by raising the academic requirements of many occupations
higher than is really necessary to perform the work. A number of surveys show that skill-based underemployment in North America and Europe can be a long-lasting phenomenon. If university graduates remain in a prolonged state of underemployment, the skills they gained from their degrees can atrophy from disuse or become out of date. For example, a person who graduates with a
PhD in
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
has advanced research and writing skills when they graduate, but if they work as a store clerk for a number of years, these skills may atrophy from disuse. Similarly, technically specialized workers may find themselves unable to acquire positions commensurate with their skills for extended lengths of time following
layoff
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
s. Skilled machinists who are laid off may find that they cannot find another job as a machinist and so they may work as a server in a restaurant, a job which does not use their professional skills.
As the tertiary education of most students in Western countries is fully or partially subsidized by government monies (because it takes place at a
state university
A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, territory or federal district. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country.
State univers ...
or
public university
A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...
or because the student receives government loans or grants), the underemployment of recent college graduates may also be an ineffective use of public resources. Several solutions have been proposed to reduce skill-based underemployment: for example, government-imposed restrictions on public university enrollment in degree fields with a very low labor market demand (e.g. fine arts), or changes in degree cost model that reflect potential labour market demand.
A related kind of underemployment refers to "involuntary part-time" workers, who could (and would like to) be working on a standard work-week (typically
full-time
Full-time or Full Time may refer to:
* Full-time job, employment in which a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer
* Full-time mother, a woman whose work is running or managing her family's home
* Full-time fat ...
employment
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
means 40 hours per week in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
) schedule but can find only part-time work. Underemployment is more prevalent during times of economic stagnation (during
recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
s or
depressions). During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
of the 1930s, many of those who were employed were underemployed. Those kinds of underemployment arise because
labor markets typically do not "
clear" using
wage adjustment. Instead, there is a non-wage
rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
of jobs.
Underuse of economic capacity
Underemployment can also be used in
regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...
to describe localities where
economic activity
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
rates are unusually low. This can be induced by a lack of job opportunities,
training
Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or Physical fitness, fitness that relate to specific practicality, useful Competence (human resources), competencies. Training has specific goals of improving on ...
opportunities, or services such as
childcare
Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...
and
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
ation. Such difficulties may lead
residents to accept economic inactivity rather than register as
unemployed
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...
or actively seek jobs because their prospects for regular employment appear so bleak. (These people are often called
discouraged worker
In economics, a discouraged worker is a person of legal employment age who is not actively seeking employment or who has not found employment after long-term unemployment, but who would prefer to be working. This is usually because an individua ...
s and are not counted officially as being "unemployed.") The tendency to get by without work (to exit the
labor force
The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...
, living off relatives, friends, personal savings, or non-recorded economic activities) can be aggravated if it is made difficult to obtain unemployment benefits.
Relatedly, in
macroeconomics
Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole.
For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...
, "underemployment" simply refers to ''
excess unemployment'', i.e., high unemployment relative to
full employment
Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or unemployment#Cyclical unemployment, deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely Structu ...
or the
natural rate of unemployment
The natural rate of unemployment is the name that was given to a key concept in the study of economic activity. Milton Friedman and Edmund Phelps, tackling this 'human' problem in the 1960s, both received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Scienc ...
, also called the
NAIRU
Non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is a theoretical level of unemployment below which inflation would be expected to rise. . Thus, in
Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
, reference is made to
underemployment equilibrium. Economists calculate the cyclically-adjusted
full employment
Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or unemployment#Cyclical unemployment, deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely Structu ...
unemployment rate, e.g. 4% or 6%
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
, which in a given context is regarded as "normal" and acceptable. Sometimes, this rate is equated with the
NAIRU
Non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is a theoretical level of unemployment below which inflation would be expected to rise. . The difference between the observed unemployment rate and cyclically adjusted full employment unemployment rate is one measure of the societal level of underemployment. By
Okun's Law
In economics, Okun's law is an empirically observed relationship between unemployment and losses in a country's production. It is named after Arthur Melvin Okun, who first proposed the relationship in 1962. The "gap version" states that for every ...
, it is correlated with the gap between
potential output
In economics, potential output (also referred to as "natural gross domestic product") refers to the highest level of real gross domestic product (potential output) that can be sustained over the long term. Actual output happens in real life while ...
and the actual real
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
. This "GDP gap" and the degree of underemployment of labor would be larger if they incorporated the roles of underemployed labor, involuntary part-time labor, and discouraged workers.
Underuse of employed workers
The third definition of "underemployment" describes a polar opposite phenomenon: to some
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
s, the term refers to "overstaffing" or "hidden unemployment," the practice of
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
es or entire
economies
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...
employing workers who are not fully occupied (in other words, employees who are not
economically productive, or underproductive, or
economically inefficient). This may be because of legal or social restrictions on firing and lay-offs (e.g. union rules requiring managers to make a case to fire a worker or spend time and money fighting the union) or because they are ''overhead'' workers, or because the work is highly seasonal (which is the case in
accounting firms
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...
focusing on
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
preparation, as well as
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
and the
hospitality industry
The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and drink service, event planning, theme parks, travel and tourism. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars.
Sector ...
). The presence of this issue in
white collar office jobs is described in the
boreout
Boredom boreout syndrome is a psychological disorder that causes physical illness, mainly caused by mental underload at the workplace due to lack of either adequate quantitative or qualitative workload. One reason for boreout could be that the in ...
phenomenon, which posits that the major issue facing office workers is lack of work and
boredom
In conventional usage, boredom, ennui, or tedium is an emotional and occasionally psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occu ...
.
This kind of underemployment does ''not'' refer to the kind of non-work time done by, for instance,
firefighters
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
or
lifeguards
A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park, beach, spa, river and lake. Lifeguards are trained in swimming and CPR/ AED first a ...
, who spend a lot of their time waiting and watching for emergency or rescue work to do; this kind of activity is necessary in case there are multiple simultaneous incidents.
This kind of underemployment may exist for ''
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such ...
'' or ''
cyclical'' reasons. In many economies, some firms become insulated from fierce competitive pressures and grow
inefficient
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...
, because they are awarded a government
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
(e.g., telephone or electrical utilities) or due to a situation of abuse of market power (e.g., holding a
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
position in a certain industry). As such, if they may employ more workers than necessary, they might not be getting the market signals that would pressure them to reduce their labour force, and they may end up carrying the resultant excess
cost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which ...
s and depressed
profits.
In some countries, labour laws or practices (e.g. powerful
unions) may force employers to retain excess employees. Other countries (e.g.
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) often have significant cultural influences (the relatively great importance attached to
worker solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
as opposed to
shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
rights) that result in a reluctance to shed labour in times of difficulty. In Japan, there is a long-held tradition that if a worker commits to serve a company with long and loyal service, the company will, in return, keep the worker on the payroll even during economic downturns. In
centrally-planned economies, layoffs were often not allowed so that some state-run companies would have periods when they had more workers than they needed to complete the organization's tasks.
Cyclical underemployment refers to the tendency for the
capacity utilization
Capacity utilization or capacity utilisation is the extent to which a firm or nation employs its installed productive capacity. It is the relationship between output that ''is'' produced with the installed equipment, and the potential output whic ...
of firms (and therefore of their demand for labor) to be lower at times of
recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...
or
economic depression
An economic depression is a period of carried long-term economical downturn that is result of lowered economic activity in one major or more national economies. Economic depression maybe related to one specific country were there is some economic ...
. At such times, underemployment of workers may be tolerated and indeed may be wise business policy, given the financial cost and the reduction of
morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...
from shedding and then rehiring staff. Alternatively, paying underused overhead workers is seen as an investment in their future contributions to production. This kind of underemployment has been given as a possible reason why
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
gained
market share
Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...
from
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
. Unlike Airbus, which had more flexibility, Boeing was unable to ramp up
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
fast enough when prosperous times returned because it had dismissed a great part of its personnel in lean times.
Another example is the
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
sector, which faces cyclical demand in areas where attractions are weather-related. In some tourism sectors, such as the sun and sand tours operated by
Club Med
Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily o ...
, the company can shed bartenders, lifeguards, sports instructors, and other staff in the off-season because there is such a strong demand for young people to work for the company since its glamorous beachfront properties are desirable places to work. However, not all tourism sectors find it so easy to recruit staff. Some tourism sectors require workers with unusual or hard-to-find skills. Northern Ontario hunting and fishing camps that require skilled guides may have an incentive to retain their staff in the off-season. Another example is companies that run tours for foreign tourists using staff speaking the travelers' native tongue. In Canada, guided tours are available for Japanese and German tourists in their native languages; in some locations, it may be hard for companies to find Japanese- or German-speaking staff and so companies may retain their staff in the off-season.
See also
*
Unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
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Credentialism and educational inflation
Credentialism and educational inflation are any of a number of related processes involving increased demands for formal educational qualifications, and the devaluation of these qualifications. In Western society, China, and India, there has bee ...
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Dead-end job
A dead-end job is a job where there is little or no chance of career development and advancement into a better position. If an individual requires further education to progress within their firm that is difficult to obtain for any reason, this can ...
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Discouraged worker
In economics, a discouraged worker is a person of legal employment age who is not actively seeking employment or who has not found employment after long-term unemployment, but who would prefer to be working. This is usually because an individua ...
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Effective unemployment rate
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Job guarantee
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Labor force
The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...
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Overqualification
Overqualification is the state of being educated beyond what is necessary or requested by an employer for a position with the business. There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees. This could be problematic for ...
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Tang ping
''Tang ping'' () is a lifestyle and social protest movement in China beginning in April 2021. It is a rejection of societal pressures to overwork, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishin ...
("lying flat")
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Underearners Anonymous
Underearners Anonymous (UA) is a twelve-step program founded in 2005 for men and women who have come together to overcome what they call "underearning". Underearning is not just the inability to provide for oneself monetarily including the inabi ...
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Working poor
The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...
References
Further reading
* Dooley, David and JoAnn Prause. ''The Social Costs of Underemployment: Inadequate Employment as Disguised Unemployment''. Cambridge University Press. , .
* Maynard, Douglas C. and Daniel C. Feldman (Eds.). ''Underemployment: Psychological, Economic, and Social Challenges.'' Springer Business + Science. ,
External links
A Study of Underemployment in Kentucky– The University of Kentucky
Statistics Explained: Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics (Europe)– Eurostat, April 2012
– US Bureau of Labor and Statistics
{{Authority control
Employment
Personal financial problems
Employment classifications
Unemployment