This is my final paper for the O&L 728 Culture and Work course that I just took with Dr. Ellen Herda for the O&L Ed.D. program.

1. Underemployed Workers in America: Underutilized, Underpaid, and Unhappy
Kimberly Renee Knowles
O&L 728 Culture & Work (Doctoral)
May 6, 2011

2. As the United States’ economy has declined over the past few years, journalists,
economists and laypeople have paid much attention to the approximately 10% of Americans who
are unemployed – looking for work and collecting unemployment checks from the government
for varying lengths of time in order to keep their finances afloat. Less talked about are
underemployed workers who do have jobs but are not being utilized to their full capacity. As
Feldman (1996:385) points out “…politicians and the popular press have made a low
unemployment rate the symbol of wellbeing for American families. Largely ignored have been
the economic and emotional problems of those who are underemployed in jobs requiring
significantly less education and work experience than they possess, often in positions offering
much lower wages, few benefits, fewer working hours, and less job security than in their last
jobs.” In this paper, I will discuss who these underemployed workers are, how
underemployment influences their lives, and how we can ameliorate their situation and help
Americans to find work that utilizes them to their full capacity.
Who Are Underemployed Workers?
According to Gallup, underemployed workers are defined as part-time workers wanting
full-time work (Jacobe 2011). But that does not capture the full spectrum of underemployed
workers. Underemployed workers come from all segments of the population. One key group of
underemployed workers are college students who graduate with mountains of student loan debt
and are unable to find work in their field, ending up working jobs that they could have obtained
straight out of high school – at call centers, retail shops, restaurants, and other low-paying areas
of the workforce. John Stossel (2009) featured the plight of these debt-encumbered
undergraduates in an ABC 20/20 segment entitled, “Is College Worth It?”
Another group of underemployed workers are people who find that the field in which
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3. they established themselves has been outsourced (e.g. information technology workers) or has
experienced significant setbacks due to the recent financial collapse (e.g. hedge fund managers,
home loan processors). These workers are initially confident that they will be able to find
similar work when they are laid off, but eventually take positions offering lower status and lower
pay when their unemployment checks run out (Vargas 2009). Blinder (quoted in Crawford
2009:34) warns about these type of industry implosions occurring with increasingly frequency,
noting “millions of white-collar workers who thought their jobs were immune to foreign
competition suddenly find that the game has changed –and not to their liking.”
Women re-entering the workforce after raising children can also find themselves
underemployed upon their return. As featured on The Today Show (Couric 2004), “Comeback
Moms” find that employers are hesitant to hire them for positions at their previous level if they
have large employment gaps on their resume. Employers also perceive the industry has changed
since these women left it and therefore believe that they are no longer sufficiently prepared to
work alongside their former colleagues. Re-entry women often end up underemployed in low-
level administrative positions or entry-level retail positions trying to re-establish their work
history and build back towards positions that fully utilize their skills.
According to Feldman (1996), there are five dimensions of underemployment that more
exhaustively define this segment of the workforce. First, an underemployed worker may possess
more higher-level work skills and more extensive work experience than the job requires.
Second, an underemployed worker may possess more formal education than the job requires.
Third, an underemployed worker may be involuntarily employed in an area outside of their
formal education. Fourth, an underemployed worker may be involuntarily engaged in part-time,
temporary, or seasonal work. Finally, an underemployed worker may earn 20% less than in their
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4. previous job or 20% less than their graduating cohort in their same track. Each of the profiles of
underemployed workers that I have described fits at least one of these five dimensions – often
more than one.
Other underemployed workers who fit these five dimensions include middle-aged
workers forced to take low-level retail jobs because they were forced into early retirement before
they were financially or emotionally ready for it. Also, immigrants to America from other
countries in fields requiring licensing such as the medical profession can find it difficult to utilize
education and work experience from their home country to find employment in their fields.
Now that I have described in more detail who underemployed workers are, I will discuss how
underemployment influences their lives.
How Does Underemployment Influence People’s Lives?
Underemployment has far-reaching consequences for workers and their families.
According to Feldman (1996:391), underemployment has a negative influence on worker’s job
satisfaction, job performance, future career trajectory, marital, family & social relationships and
their overall psychological well-being. Workers in low paying, dead end jobs do not have the
opportunity to contribute their full interests and abilities to the global economy.
Being underemployed can have a tremendously negative influence on one’s confidence
and self-esteem – making it challenging to summon up the motivation and enthusiasm to search
for more appropriate positions (Feldman 1996). One underemployed college graduate in
Stossel’s (2009) special referenced that he “feels like a loser” working in a call center after
spending thousands of dollars to earn both an undergraduate and graduate degree. The hedge
fund manager turned pizza delivery man in Vargas’s (2009) special discussed a full progression
downward of his ego as he came to grips with not being able to find a job in his field or even as a
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5. bartender until he was willing to do whatever it took to put food on the table for his family. Re-
entry women also experience feel a loss of identity as they go from being in charge of their
families, mom circles, and volunteer groups to starting back at the bottom of their new
employment environment and having to work their way up (Couric 2004).
As Feldman (1996) mentioned, being underemployed negatively influences family
relationships as well. The former hedge fund manager and his wife in Vargas’s (2009) special
referenced his underemployment making it difficult to maintain the strength of their relationship
as they negotiate which bills need to get paid the most and maintain a positive attitude for their
children. Underemployment can strain new graduates’ relationships with their parents as many
are forced to move back in with their mom and dad because they can’t afford to pay rent to live
on their own (Stossel 2009).
Finally, as Feldman (1996) outlined, being underemployed can negatively influence
workers’ future career trajectory. This consequence of underemployment is particularly
damaging for recent college graduates because they miss the opportunity to establish their
careers at a critical point. In a conversation about underemployed workers, Ellen Kelly Daley
(March 2011) from USF Career Services estimated that college graduates are given a window of
approximately 1-2 years after graduation to launch themselves into their chosen career. After
that, employers are much less willing to “take a risk” and hire them for the work that they have
been trained to do.
Without obtaining new certifications or degrees, recent college graduates find themselves
permanently “locked out” of their intended occupations. Unfortunately, low-paying jobs make it
impossible for graduates to pay back the loans that they have accumulated let alone pay for new
training to seek employment in different fields. One of the graduates interviewed in Stossel’s
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6. (2009) feature said that if she could do the whole thing over again, she would have spent her
money on trade school for hairdressing (which presumably she now cannot afford) because it
would have allowed her to do work that she enjoys and that pays well. Now that I have outlined
whom underemployed workers are and how underemployment negatively influences their lives. I
will discuss how we can use hermeneutic concepts and an interpretive paradigm along with
realistic vocational advice to address the problem of underemployment in American and help
workers gain full employment.
How Can We Assist Underemployed Workers to Begin Anew?
In order to help underemployed workers imagine a new future, we must first help them to
re-remember their past. Underemployed workers need to forgive themselves for whatever role
they personally played in creating their current situation. For example, many underemployed
college graduates regret their decision to enter college and accumulate debt in the first place
(Stossel 2009). The hedge fund manager turned pizza delivery man likely regrets buying a large
house and living an extravagant lifestyle before being laid off – if he hadn’t done that he would
not have needed to return to work so quickly in order to support his family (Vargas 2009).
Underemployed workers also need to forgive their former employers, universities, society, and
others who helped to get them into their predicament.
The point is not to forget that those things ever happened but to re-remember them in a
new way, to extract whatever learning is possible from the experience and begin again. As
Ricoeur (2004:504) said, paraphrasing Mark Augé from Les Formes de l’oubli, “To embrace the
future, one must forget the past in a gesture of inauguration, beginning and rebeginning, as in
rituals of initiation.” Underemployed workers need to absorb themselves in the blessings present
in the world around them until the work of memory and the work of mourning fades away to
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7. become effortless. As Ricoeur (2004:505) puts it, “What ‘godly diversion’ as Kierkegaard calls
forgetting the worry to distinguish it from ordinary distractions, would be capable of bringing
man to consider: how glorious it is to be a human being?...Carefree memory on the horizon of
concerned memory, the soul common to memory that forgets and does not forget.” In order to
help workers re-remember the past and imagine a new future, hermeneutics offers us several
tools.
The Power of Narrative
By encouraging underemployed workers to tell their stories, we can assist them to re-
remember and reformulate their lives. As Herda (1997:37) describes, “Stories allow us to
mediate the past and the future to the present, to bring into one plot many inconsistencies in our
lives.” Durrance (in Herda 1997:37) adds, “Stories help people bring the best of themselves to
their jobs.” By inviting workers to share their stories with us, we help them to emplot the sad
state of events that have experienced and self-author their life story in a new way. Viewing their
lives in a narrative form helps workers to reflect on what they have brought with them from the
past (Mimesis1) and what they would like for their future (Mimesis3). As Herda (1999:77) puts
it, “We reflect and distance ourselves from our prejudices and pre-understandings. Although we
belong to history, we also can distance ourselves from it when it is in narrative form.”
This concept of narrative and mimesis was somewhat evident in Stossel’s (2009)
documentary as he invited the recent graduates that he featured to share their narratives with him.
As mentioned previously, one of the girls in the story reflected on her decision to enter college
and discussed her newfound understanding that entering trade school for hairdressing would
provide her with more marketable skills. By inviting an underemployed worker to share their
story with us, we provide an opening for positive change. Herda (1999:72) advocates highlights
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8. the power of inviting someone to share their narrative with you, stating, “A conversation is an
event during which several things take place: we evaluate ourselves and others, we tell and retell
our story, we see the past, and we pose possibilities for the future.” As a complement to
conversations and narratives, fiction and artistic pursuits can provide inspiration as well.
The Power of Fiction and Artistic Pursuits
In addition to encouraging underemployed workers to share their stories with others, we
should encourage them to read fiction and engage in artistic pursuits. This will help inspire them
to self-author their lives and imagine new possibilities. Underemployed workers should set
aside time to read novels about self, identity, and purpose and watch movies – a diet of solely
self-help books is not a good idea. As Kearney (2004:171) puts it, “…the more we learn about
emplotment in fiction, the more we learn to plot our own lives (that is how to combine and
configure the various elements of our temporarily and identity).” As underemployed workers
open themselves to fictional narratives, they will find the inspiration and confidence needed to
envision their dream (Mimesis3) and take steps to realize it (Mimesis2). Ricoeur (1981:296)
asserts, “…by its mimetic intention, the world of fiction leads us to the heart of the real world of
action.”
We should encourage underemployed workers not just to read and watch fiction created
by others but also to engage in artistic pursuits themselves – i.e. dance, painting, music – these
activities help to unleash the power of imagination. As Kearney (quoted in Palmo 2010:142-3)
claims, “art is, ‘an open-access laboratory of imaginative exploration.’” When Palmo
interviewed activists leading communities in creation of art narratives, she found that both
participants and their leaders found the artistic process to be extremely powerful in enabling
participants to learn and grow and view their lives and communities in new ways. As one of her
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9. participants, Joseph, stated, “…it was so amazing that you just create a platform, a platform to
kind of trigger and at the end of the day it would be the power of art doing this. It’s not the
power of lecture” (Palmo 2010:141). In addition to utilizing the power of narrative and the
power of artistic pursuits to assist already underemployed workers to begin anew, we need to
give younger generations realistic vocational advice in order to prevent them from becoming
underemployed in the first place.
Realistic Vocational Advice
Although college can be a beneficial adventure and growth experience for many students,
it is not for everyone. It is expensive and as seen in Stossel’s (2009) report, it does not lead to
successful job results for every student. According to Crawford (2009:53), students should
explore working in the trades. He says, “…if you are attracted to the most difficult books out of
an urgent need, and can spare four years to devote yourself to them, go to college…but if this is
not the case…the good news is you don’t have to go through the motions and jump through the
hoops for the sake of making a decent living.” The third participant interviewed in Stossel’s
(2009) special would agree with that assessment. Instead of going to college, he went through
apprenticeship to become a car repairman and is making steady money in an industry that
actually added jobs in the economic downturn. Overall, we must avoid automatically telling all
high school graduates to go to college to “get a good job” and encourage them to consider
“rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable (Crawford 2009:53).”
Work That Engages One’s Full Capacities
Through re-remembering through narratives, fiction, and artistic pursuits, we encourage
underemployed workers to begin again – to connect their take for granted world (Mimesis1) with
the new world that they want to live in (Mimesis3) and see themselves in new and different
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10. capacities (Herda 1999:77). We can empower them open up “the kingdom of the as if” Ricoeur
1984:64). We can support them to “renew and reconfigure themselves” through autopoeisis
(Herda 1997:35). And, we can inspire them to utilize imagination. As Kearney (2004:175)
wrote, “Thinking poetically, acting poetically, dwelling poetically are all modalities of imagining
poetically. They are ways of realizing the fundamental possibilities of who we are. For as Emily
Dickinson wrote, ‘possibility is the fuse lit by the spark of imagination.” Finally, through these
efforts above and realistic vocational advice given to young people, we can help all American
workers achieve Crawford’s (2009:87) vision of “work that engages the human capacities as
fully as possible.
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11. References
Couric, Katie
2004 Moms Moving Back Into the Workforce. Today Show. NBC, October 21.
Crawford, Matthew
2009 Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. New York: The Penguin
Press.
Feldman, Daniel
1996 The Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences of Underemployment. Journal of
Management 22:385-407.
Herda, Ellen
1997 Global Economic Convergence and Emerging Forms of Social Organization. Paper
presented at the World Multiconference on Systemic, Cybernetics and Informatics,
Venezuela, July 7-11.
1999 Research Conversations and Narrative: A Critical Hermeneutic Orientation in
Participatory Inquiry. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
Jacobe, Dennis
2011 Gallup finds U.S. Unemployment at 10.2% in Mid-March. Gallup. Electronic
Document, http://www.gallup.com/poll/146666/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-Mid-
March.aspx, accessed April 28, 2011.
Kearney, Richard
2004 On Paul Ricoeur: The Owl of Minerva. England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Palmo, Maria
2010 The Artistic Process in Community Development: Disclosing Cultural Narrative
and Identity Through Art Practices in Uganda. Ph.D. dissertation, School of Education,
The University of San Francisco.
Ricoeur, Paul
1981 Hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action and
interpretation: Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
1984 Time and Narrative, vol. 1. Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer, trans.
Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. (originally published 1983)
2004 Memory, History, Forgetting. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer, translators.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stossel, John
2009 Is College Worth It? ABC 20/20. ABC, January 16.
Vargas, Elizabeth
2009 Down But Not Out: From Hedge Funds to Pizza Delivery. ABC 20/20. ABC, March
20.