The Willingness to be Underemployed: A Study of Unemployed Professionals

摘要

This study examines underemployment willingness among laid-off workers. The authors use conservation of resources theory to propose that mental distress, perceptions of the economy, and unemployment duration are individually and jointly related to underemployment willingness. Survey data from 260 unemployed workers demonstrates that longer unemployment duration and negative perceptions of the economy are related to underemployment willingness. Furthermore, a significant three-way interaction shows that unemployed workers display the highest underemployment willingness when unemployment duration and mental distress are high and perceptions of the economy are negative.