Underemployed workers

The number of underemployed workers are an important component of underutilised labour resources in the economy.

Underemployed workers are defined as:

• part-time workers who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have, and
• full-time workers who worked part-time hours during the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available).

Underemployed Workers, Australia, Sep 2009 (cat.no 6265.0) presents information about the characteristics of underemployed workers aged 15 years and over. A range of information is presented including the number of hours usually worked, number of preferred hours, steps taken to find work with more hours and difficulties finding work with more hours.

For time series information on the number of underemployed workers, users are advised to use the quarterly Labour Force Survey estimates. Trend and seasonally adjusted and original estimates are released monthly in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0), tables 19 to 20.