Underemployment is a much discussed but little researched topic. The thesis begins
with a broad discussion of the theory and methodology underlying the recent research on
underemployment. It then proceeds to a quantitative analysis of underemployment using data
from the 1995 follow-up of B.C. college leavers from vocational, technical and two-year
academic university transfer programs. The study finds that, overall, one third of B.C. college
leavers were employed in jobs that did not require the level of education that they had attained.
As expected, there were significant differences by field of study and subsequent occupation.
The rate of underemployment among students from academic programs was eight times the
rate of underemployment for students from vocational programs and twice that of students
from career/technical programs. Additionally, almost a third of all college leavers were
employed in Sales and Service occupations and roughly two-thirds of those were
underemployed. Labour market segmentation theory provides the most useful theoretical
explanation for these findings. The markedly uneven rates of underemployment experienced by
college leavers in the core and peripheral sectors support the labour market segmentation
perspective. In conclusion, underemployment is a useful, though limited construct. Such a
measure should only be used in conjunction with other measures of employment outcomes like
unemployment, salary and full/part-time employment status.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6467 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Cram, Daniel William |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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