One in five part-timers are underemployed - Stats NZ

  • 25/06/2018
Youths, parents, Māori and Pacific peoples are particularly vulnerable.
Youths, parents, Māori and Pacific peoples are particularly vulnerable. Photo credit: Getty

One in five part-time workers last year were considered underemployed, according to research by Stats NZ.

In 2017 there were 112,300 underemployed people - and 63,000 of them were actively seeking more work.

Underemployed people are those who work part time (fewer than 30 hours a week), but want and are available to increase their hours.

"Underemployed people make up a third of the underutilised potential in New Zealand's labour market,"Stats NZ labour market manager Sean Broughton says.

"Despite our labour market being 'tight', these people are unsatisfied with their level of participation. People who are underemployed are of interest to both potential employers and to policy-makers."

The average (median) time usually worked by underemployed people was 15 hours a week. If they could have chosen their own hours, they would have opted to double that to 30 hours per week.

Over half of underemployed people gave 'a lack of available work' as their reason for not working the hours they would like. This lack included the type of work they wanted, the hours they were available for, or the location they could travel to.

On average, underemployed people earned $302.30 a week for 15 hours work. In comparison, part-timers who were not underemployed were earning $440.36 a week for 16 hours of work.

Some groups were especially likely to be underemployed: people under 30 years (28.3 percent), Māori and Pacific peoples (31.2 percent and 29.3 percent, respectively), and parents with dependent children.

Newshub.