Women more likely to be underemployed

Women workers are among those most likely to be underemployed, according to research from the Underemployment Project which found they tend to work fewer hours than men, have higher skills than their current role requires, and are underpaid for the job they do.

Described as a “sociological investigation of underemployment and the lived experiences of underemployed workers”, the multi-university project is a three-year study that started in January 2023.

Its first report released in December 2023 also showed that younger workers, those with fewer qualifications, and Black and Ethnic Minority workers are negatively affected in all three dimensions, suffering from insufficient hours, limited use of skills, and low wages.

The report concluded that its initial findings “raise fascinating questions about the most appropriate indicators to use in order to capture underemployment as a whole”. The second report will aim to show how the three dimensions accumulate and if they overlap.