Underemployment

Underemployment data helps communities identify the portions of their population who are underutilizing their skills or time. There are three types of underemployment:

• Over-skilled
• Under-payed
• Low hour

The underemployment data in the Economy Overview compares the educational attainment of the working age population (25+) to the number of jobs (25+) by typical entry level education in the region. 

Example

• 15% of region A’s population has a high school diploma. 34% of jobs only require a typical entry level education of a high school diploma. This means that 19% of the region’s working age population would be over-skilled and have a higher degree than necessary for this jobs.

Sources:

• Population educational attainment level by county (ACS data from the Census)
• Typical entry level education by occupation (BLS)