Many
studies have highlighted that underemployed people experience lower objective
career success and lower subjective career success, but little is known about
the lasting effects of taking a job below one's skill level.
To make
ends meet in the short term, many workers may accept part-time positions, seek
work from temporary agencies or take jobs below their skill level, but a
University of Texas study revealed that accepting a job as such can be severely
penalizing when applying for future employment because of the perception that
someone who does this is less committed or less competent.
Researcher
David Pedulla said that even though millions of workers are employed in
part-time positions, through temporary agencies and at jobs below their skill
level, less attention has been paid to how these types of employment situations
influence workers' future hiring outcomes.
Pedulla
submitted 2,420 fictitious applications for 1,210 real job openings in five
cities across the United States and tracked employers' responses to each
application. All applicant information was held constant, including six years
of prior work experience, except for gender and applicants' employment
situation during the previous year. Job histories involved full-time work,
part-time work, a temporary help agency position, a job below the applicant's
skill level ("skills underutilization"), or unemployment.
The study
found that about 5 percent of men and women working below their skill level
received a "callback" or positive employer response; about half the
callback rate for workers in full-time jobs at their skill level. Similarly,
less than 5 percent of men working part time received callbacks. However,
part-time employment had no negative effect for women, and temporary agency
employment had little effect for either gender.
The study offers
compelling evidence that taking a job below one's skill level is quite
penalizing, regardless of one's gender. Additionally, part-time work severely
hurts the job prospects of men, Pedulla noted, adding that these findings raise
important additional questions about why employers are less likely to hire
workers with these employment histories.
The study
appears online in the American Sociological Review.
Representative
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Source:
ANI
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