Underemployment and Job Quality Among Young Australians: A Gendered Analysis Using the HILDA Survey (2009–2022)

Abstract

Over almost two decades, young people's employment opportunities have been significantly impacted by events like the Global Financial Crisis (2008–2009) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-). Thus, underemployment has become a more pervasive and persistent feature of young people's labour market experiences. This research focuses on three forms of underemployment: (1) temporal-; (2) wages- and (3) skills-related underemployment and whether young people who are working less, earning less or using less of their skills are in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ quality jobs. Drawing on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2009–2022), this research explored three dimensions o..