A whopping 18.3% of American workers are unemployed or working part time, but want to work full-time, a Gallup Poll released on Wednesday shows. Although down from its peak of 20.4% in April, underemployment has remains unchanged since the end of June. One bright spot of the Gallup poll: 45% of underemployed Americans are “hopeful” in mid-August they will be able to find work in the next month, up from the 40% who felt that way in mid-July, and the highest level of 2010.
Among the subgroups in the U.S. workforce, Gallup finds:
- A higher percentage of women than of men are underemployed
- Americans aged 18 to 29 continue to have the highest underemployment rate of age group, at 27.6% in mid-August, including 11.9% unemployed and 15.7% employed part time but wanting to work full time.
- Workers without any college education remain more likely to be underemployed than those with higher education levels.
