Underemployment and well-being in Europe

This paper examines the consequences of underemployment for the well-being of workers in European countries. Previous studies of the impact of underemployment on well-being have tended to focus on a single country or occupational group and have examined single dimensions of underemployment. This paper, by contrast, examines experiences across several European economies and explores two different dimensions of underemployment: the gap between hours of work and workers’ desired hours and the under-utilisation of their skills and abilities. The paper uses data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and explains the consequences of underemployment for well-being by drawing on the international comparative political economy literature, particularly the theorisation and analysis of comparative employment and welfare regimes. We find that while underemployment is generally associated with lower levels of well-being, the nature and strength of relationships between different dimensions of underemployment and well-being vary between employment regimes. The paper also highlights the detrimental consequences of ‘over-employment’ for workers’ well-being and shows that the well-being of women tends to be lower than that of men, regardless of employment regime.