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Showing results for underemployed. Search instead for the employed.
Synonyms

underemployed

American  
[uhn-der-em-ploid] / ˌʌn dər ɛmˈplɔɪd /

adjective

  1. employed at a job that does not fully use one's skills or abilities.

  2. employed only part-time when one is available for full-time work.

  3. not utilized fully.

noun

  1. underemployed workers collectively.

underemployed British  
/ ˌʌndərɪmˈplɔɪd /

adjective

  1. not fully or adequately employed

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What does underemployed mean? Underemployed means employed only part-time when one wants to be working full-time. Someone who’s underemployed has a job and wants to be working more but can’t, often due to a lack of available jobs. The term is often used in the same context as unemployed, which means not employed at all. Both underemployed and unemployed are sometimes used to refer to such people collectively, as in These programs are intended to help the unemployed and underemployed. Less commonly, underemployed refers not to working less than desired but to not being used to one’s full potential or abilities. People who are overqualified for a job sometimes end up underemployed in this way. The state of being underemployed is underemployment. The verb employ also means to use, and underemployed can be used to describe something that’s not used as much as it should be, as in an underemployed strategy. Synonyms for this sense of the word are underused and underutilized. Example: The unemployment rate can be misleading if it doesn’t take into account the many people who are underemployed.

Other Word Forms

  • underemployment noun

Etymology

Origin of underemployed

First recorded in 1905–10; under- + employ + -ed 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Not that this does you any good if you’re currently unemployed or underemployed, but very rarely are even 1 in 10 Americans looking for work and unable to find it.

From Slate • Jan. 13, 2026

Many refugees arrive with professional experience and degrees but end up unemployed or underemployed in survival-wage jobs to make ends meet.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

Jack, the investment broker who teams up with Tess in more ways than one, is played by Anoop Desai in a dashing but theatrically underemployed performance.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2025

I think about my career and need to find work that gets me out of being constantly underemployed.

From Salon • Nov. 3, 2024

Half the young men of that age group are either unemployed or underemployed.

From "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.