David N. F. Bell and David G. Blanchflower, “The Well-Being of the Overemployed and the Underemployed and the Rise in Depression in the UK.” NBER Working Paper No. 24840, July 2018. [A later version appears in the May, 2019 issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.]
• Unemployment is very detrimental to subjective well-being (SWB); but what about underemployment?
• It turns out that in the UK, working fewer hours than you would like to work (at the same rate of pay) also undermines SWB – though not by as much as does poor health or unemployment.
• Overemployment also lowers well-being!
• Though unemployment in the UK has recovered from the 2008 crisis, underemployment has not recovered; earlier this year [2018], it stood at about 3% of the labor force.
• Incomes and real wages also have not recovered, perhaps because underemployment is a sign of slack in the labor market.
• Men are more likely than women to be underemployed, and lower wage workers are more likely to desire more hours.
• Data are drawn from four subjective well-being questions that focus on different conceptions of life assessment: (1) satisfaction; (2) worthiness; (3) happiness; and (4) anxiety. The first three measures show improvements in well-being over the 2011-2017 period; not so for anxiety.
• The usual age effects show up, with well-being minimized at ages 50-54; things again head south after age 75 (but from global highs at 70-74). Retired people display high well-being.
• Depression is fairly common (and much more so now than ten years ago), with 2.3% of workers being depressed and almost 10% of the unemployed being similarly situated.
• Unemployment is very detrimental to subjective well-being (SWB); but what about underemployment?
• It turns out that in the UK, working fewer hours than you would like to work (at the same rate of pay) also undermines SWB – though not by as much as does poor health or unemployment.
• Overemployment also lowers well-being!
• Though unemployment in the UK has recovered from the 2008 crisis, underemployment has not recovered; earlier this year [2018], it stood at about 3% of the labor force.
• Incomes and real wages also have not recovered, perhaps because underemployment is a sign of slack in the labor market.
• Men are more likely than women to be underemployed, and lower wage workers are more likely to desire more hours.
• Data are drawn from four subjective well-being questions that focus on different conceptions of life assessment: (1) satisfaction; (2) worthiness; (3) happiness; and (4) anxiety. The first three measures show improvements in well-being over the 2011-2017 period; not so for anxiety.
• The usual age effects show up, with well-being minimized at ages 50-54; things again head south after age 75 (but from global highs at 70-74). Retired people display high well-being.
• Depression is fairly common (and much more so now than ten years ago), with 2.3% of workers being depressed and almost 10% of the unemployed being similarly situated.
