Underemployment

Underemployment – when people are employed in some way that is insufficient, such as being overqualified or working part-time when one desires full-time employment – is a challenge faced by all industrialized nations and their organizations and individuals. Just like unemployment, some level of underemployment exists even in the best of times, but it becomes more pervasive when the job market is weak. Given the current economic climate in North America and abroad, researchers and scholars in various disciplines (psychology, business, sociology, economics) are becoming more interested in investigating the effects of underemployment and identifying possible practical solutions. Underemployment synthesizes the current understanding of the phenomenon by bringing together scholars with diverse perspectives and expertise with the aim of informing and guiding the next generation of underemployment research.

• employment
• industrial and organizational psychology
• job market
• underemployment

From the reviews:

“As this volume reveals, underutilized skills, too little pay, and too few work hours take their toll on financial, social, and emotional well-being. Editors Maynard (SUNY, New Paltz) and Feldman (Univ. of Georgia) have compiled a set of multidisciplinary articles on the topic of underemployment, authored by international scholars. … This volume is the most comprehensive work on this important subject. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Business managers, business and social science professors, and upper-division undergraduate and graduate students.” (G. E. Kaupins, Choice, Vol. 49 (4), December, 2011)

Underemployment was chosen as one of Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Titles of 2011, along with six other Springer titles. "Every year, Choice subject editors single out for recognition the most significant print and electronic works reviewed in Choice during the previous calendar year.  Appearing annually in Choice’s January issue, this prestigious list of publications reflects the best in scholarly titles and attracts extraordinary attention from the academic library community.  The 2011 feature includes 629 titles in 54 disciplines and subsections." (Outstanding Academic Titles, 2011. Choice, v.49, no. 05, January 2012.)

• Psychology Dept., State University of New York, New Paltz, New Paltz, USA

  Douglas C. Maynard

• Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

  Daniel C. Feldman

Douglas C. Maynard is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Bowling Green State University in 1998. He is primarily interested in studying the consequences of overqualification and other forms of underemployment and, more generally, the issues faced by marginalized workers. His work has appeared in such journals as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Higher Education, Career Development International, Human Performance, and Organizational Research Methods.

Daniel C. Feldman is Associate Dean for Research and the Synovus Chair of Servant Leadership at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.  He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Yale University in 1976.  He is the author of six books and over 150 articles on career development and has served as Chair of the Careers Division of the Academy of Management.  He has also served as Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Management, Associate Editor of Human Resource Management, and Consulting Editor of Journal of Organizational Behavior.  Professor Feldman has won numerous research awards for his work on socialization, career indecision, layoffs, contingent employment, psychological contracts, and early retirement decisions.

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