Underemployment and Job Quality Among Young Australians: A Gendered Analysis Using the HILDA Survey (2009–2022)

Abstract

Over almost two decades, young people's employment opportunities have been significantly impacted by events like the Global Financial Crisis (2008–2009) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-). Thus, underemployment has become a more pervasive and persistent feature of young people's labour market experiences. This research focuses on three forms of underemployment: (1) temporal-; (2) wages- and (3) skills-related underemployment and whether young people who are working less, earning less or using less of their skills are in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ quality jobs. Drawing on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2009–2022), this research explored three dimensions of job quality: job demands and complexity, job control and job security amongst underemployed employed men (n = 6091) and women (n = 6331) aged between 20 and 34. The findings indicate that young people who experienced some form of underemployment also had poorer-quality jobs. Critically, all forms of underemployment were associated with less subjective job security. The findings highlight the need to pay greater attention to the types of jobs young people find themselves in, particularly, those in which they are not working at their full capacity.