EU – The rate of underemployed part-time workers was 4.1 % on the top of the 10.6% unemployment rate

This article reports on three forms of unemployment in the European Union (EU) which are not covered by the ILO definition of unemployment. They are: underemployed part-time workers, jobless persons seeking a job but not immediately available for work and jobless persons available for work but not seeking it.

• In 2013Q4 in the EU-28, the rate of underemployed part-time workers was 4.1 %. This rate is calculated over the population in the labour force.
• The rate of persons seeking a job but not immediately available for work in 2013Q4 was  0.8 %. The rate of persons available for work but not seeking it was 3.9 % in 2013Q4.
• In comparison, the unemployment rate was 10.6 % in 2013Q4.

While EU-28 unemployment increased sharply since 2008 and the beginning of the economic and financial crisis, the three soft forms of unemployment have experienced far more stable trends during this turbulent period.

The proportion of underemployed part-time workers in the labour force has grown slightly from 3.1 % in 2008Q1 to 4.1 % in 2013Q4. The percentage of persons available but not seeking work followed the same trend, reaching 3.9 % in 2013Q4. People seeking work but not immediately available has remained close to 1 % over the whole time span, showing no noticeable change since the start of the economic crisis. Two factors explain this more stable trend compared to the unemployment rate.

Firstly, the three indicators supplementing unemployment have by construction looser requirements than unemployment itself, because they look at groups of persons who do not simultaneously fulfil all the criteria of the ILO unemployment definition. This softer definition makes the indicators more stable, as people in those three categories are less likely to leave the group.

Secondly, persons in underemployment and persons available for work but not seeking tend to have structural reasons for their situation, e.g. because they believe no work is available, they are fulfilling domestic tasks etc. In the case of persons seeking work but not available the explanation is different, because they are a very dynamic group with high rotation.

What happens is that the flow of individuals entering the category is very much balanced out by the flow of individuals leaving the category. This is because many of them are students starting to look for a job before the end of their studies. There is a fairly steady outflow of students finishing their studies and joining the labour market (hence leaving the indicator possibly to become employed or unemployed), balanced out by another steady inflow of students approaching the end of their studies and wanting to work but not being available to work yet.

via Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics – Statistics Explained.