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By Joseph A. Curtatone

 When thinking about the economy, many of us look to the unemployment rate as a measure of how we’re doing. The unemployment rate has been on a steady decline since the recession and is now about 3.6% nationally, and about 1.7% in Somerville. On the surface, that looks great, but unemployment numbers don’t capture the growing problem of underemployment.

Underemployment is a broad term that includes a few categories of workers. People who work part-time but would like to work full-time, people in jobs they are over-qualified for, people in temporary jobs, and people making less than expected based on their education or experience are all considered underemployed.

Underemployment is harder to track than unemployment, but there are some numbers out there that help illustrate the magnitude of the problem. Last year NPR reported that around 33 percent of college graduates are underemployed while the Washington Post put the figure at 43 percent. In Massachusetts, we know one in six workers has a job beneath their skill level and that the number of underemployed workers has risen from about 70,000 in 2007 to more than 100,000 in 2019. Statistics also show that the number of underemployed seniors who are still working is also rising. It’s important that we continue to get a better understanding of underemployment and how, we, as a community, can help local workers out of it, because underemployment has serious long-term economic impacts. Because underemployment can take several forms, the long-term effects also can vary based on each worker’s situation. Here are a couple of examples of how people can be hurt by underemployment in both their personal and professional lives:

Someone working part-time or cobbling together full-time hours from a few part-time jobs likely won’t receive the same benefits as a full-time employee, including health insurance, sick days, or paid vacation—or even bank holidays. That means higher costs for health insurance and having to choose between staying home when sick or taking needed time off, or losing a day’s pay, which can trigger a domino effect. When someone has to pay more for health insurance and loses wages when they take a day off, they have less money for housing, food, medical care, transportation, and other expenses. They also may be paying more for transportation – rather than one commute to and from one job, an underemployed worker could be making two or three commutes between jobs in a day.

Underemployment has also been shown to slow career progression and earnings growth. Studies have found that many workers who begin their careers underemployed are still employed below their potential five and even 10 years later. And, unfortunately, this is a problem that disproportionately affects women and people of color. Along with not getting the additional work experience and opportunity to learn new skills that often comes with career advancement, people stuck in underemployment don’t see the accompanying salary increases that come with moving up the ladder. Again, this sets off a domino effect. Workers whose careers and earnings have stagnated will have a harder time doing things like affording rent increases, buying a home, having children, or saving for emergencies or retirement.

If you’ve read any of the many “millennials are killing X industry” articles that have been published, you also know that underemployment shapes consumer behavior and the larger economy. Someone who is having a hard time making ends meet or doesn’t know when their next freelance check is coming in is less like to go out to eat, go shopping, or buy tickets to a concert or play.

Unfortunately, like many of the big challenges we face, there’s not an easy solution to underemployment. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do.

The City’s Economic Development Division works on a number of programs to both bring jobs to Somerville and to make sure that Somerville residents are prepared to fill those jobs. We do this because neither our new high school graduates, our active local workers, our young professionals, our mid-career workers, nor our seniors, should have to face underemployment.

On the job recruitment side, the City’s Economic Development team regularly does outreach to promote Somerville to large employers like Partners HealthCare or Philips as well as small, local independent businesses. Their site finder tool can also help business owners who want to open or expand a business in Somerville find the right property for their needs. They hold workshops and open houses in multiple languages where prospective business owners can learn more about the process of opening up. Our Small Business Support program pairs local businesses with business coaches who advise on topics like financial planning, writing a business plan, and marketing and offers grants to fund those efforts. In SomerVision, the community set a goal of bringing 30,000 new jobs into Somerville, and each of these programs helps us get closer to that goal.

Making sure there are jobs in Somerville is important, but so is making sure employees have the skills and education needed for those jobs. Through our Skill Up Somerville program, adults can take advantage of skill development programs, including social media, coding, and fabrication, that will help prepare them to find a job or advance their career. Somerville was also one of the first municipalities in the state to establish a jobs linkage fund, which helps with the cost of job training efforts. Money for the fund comes in through a fee paid by developers of commercial projects over 15,000 square feet.

As a large employer in Somerville, the City also has a part to play. A $15 per hour living wage was recently passed for all part-time staff, and this past year we settled five union contracts that now include wage growth  even when the union is out of contract

During the recession, shifting jobs to part-time or contract positions was a way to keep more people in jobs. But now this short-term fix has created long-term problems for many workers and we, as a community, must look at strategies to get people out of underemployment and headed toward greater opportunities. We don’t just want 30,000 new jobs. We want to be sure 30,000 people are fully employed in them.