Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Employed only part-time when one needs and desires full-time employment.
- adjective Employed at a low-paying job that requires less skill or training than one possesses.
- noun Underemployed persons considered as a group. Used with the.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Employed in a job for which one isoverqualified ; or employed in a job that does not pay as much as one wants or expects.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective employed only part-time when one needs full-time employment or not making full use of your skills
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We're seeing more clients that have -- what we call underemployed, where they may be holding multiple jobs to make ends meet.
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We're seeing more clients that have -- what we call underemployed, where they may be holding multiple jobs to make ends meet.
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We're seeing more clients that have -- what we call underemployed, where they may be holding multiple jobs to make ends meet.
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We are seeing more clients that have what we call underemployed, where they may be holding multiple jobs to make ends meet or maybe that they are not getting a full 40 hours a week, so they are looking for something better.
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I see a lot of that in underemployed poorly educated white trash ….
Think Progress » Pentagon Shooter Was Right-Wing, Anti-Government Terrorist 2010
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As someone who has had direct experience with layoffs, I can tell you for sure that being slightly underemployed is WAY better than being unemployed.
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Adding people who are working part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, nearly 27 million are "underemployed" - 17.1 percent of American adults, up from 16.7 percent in August and close to a record.
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Adding those people plus others who are working part time but would prefer full-time jobs, nearly 27 million are "underemployed" - 17.1 percent of American adults, up from 16.7 percent in August and close to a record.
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Worse still, is the level of the "underemployed" -- those who are working at McDonald's but hoping to replace that job they had at a company that paid their mortgage and car payments, that are now being paid out of savings erosion.
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Taylor has joined the burgeoning ranks of the "underemployed" - the 8.9 million Americans who would prefer full-time jobs but must make do with part-time work.
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