Underemployment: Consequences for the health and well-being of workers.

Abstract

More than one quarter of the United States labor force is underemployed. Despite the prevalence of underemployment, there are few empirical studies of its consequences. Over the past decade, social scientists began to explore the consequences of underemployment for the health of workers. My dissertation continues in this tradition. Drawing from the stress process and the social structure and personality frameworks, I address how the adequacy of a person's position in the labor market presents them with stressful life experiences and influences their health. My dissertation makes a number of contributions to the literature about the relationship between underemployment and health. I draw from the Labor Utilization Framework to distinguish between different forms of underemployment (hours, income, skills, and status) and test their relative effects on different health outcomes. In addition, I explore the causal mechanisms which account for the relationship between underemployment and health. Finally, I assess whether underemployment causes declines in health (social causation) or whether poor health causes people to become underemployed (selection). I use a longitudinal research design to explore the relationship between underemployment and health, basing my analyses on a nationally representative sample (N = 1,429) drawn from the American's Changing Lives study. The results provide a number of insights into the relationship between underemployment and health. First, underemployment is related to lower levels of all indicators of health. However, the relationship varies by form of underemployment, indicator of health, and time lag of analysis. Second, there is evidence that supports both the social causation and selection hypotheses. However, the causal effect of underemployment on health appears to be stronger than the effect of health on employment status. Third, financial stress and job decision latitude are causal mechanisms which account for the relationship between underemployment and health. I conclude the dissertation by highlighting areas for future theoretical and policy research. By testing alternative theoretical frameworks over a variety of time periods, future research will continue to expand our understanding of the relationship between different forms of underemployment and health.