Rise of the underemployed: New Zealanders struggle to find full-time work

RNZ News

2 days ago

A growing number of people are settling for any job that will put food on the table.
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123rf
A growing number of people are giving up their dream career, and settling for any job, or jobs, that will put food on the table.
In the March quarter, the unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent, and the number of people in full-time jobs fell by 45,000.
The only area that saw positive growth was part-time work, with 25,000 more people in those roles than the previous year, a 4 percent rise.
But some Kiwis have said for them, fewer hours is a last resort, applying for hundreds of jobs before settling for a part-time role.
When she's not busy juggling her two part-time jobs in the entertainment industry, Petra Elise is trawling job listings and writing cover letters.
It's been this way for a few years now, after she was made redundant from her full-time role during the pandemic.
Five years on she hasn't found a full-time job, now getting by on 24 hours of work a week.
"The reason I have these two part-time roles is I had to take what I could get pretty much. I obviously would much prefer one full-time role where I don't have to move my mindset out of one role and into the other role the next day."
Even for jobs she's fully qualified for, Elise said it is rare to get a response, let alone an interview.
She receives a $50 wage supplement, but even with that entitlement she says it's incredibly hard to get by.
"How I survive is extremely careful budgeting and not a lot of, in fact no fun. It's not really a life, it's living hand to mouth."
Although it is far from her ideal situation, Elise said managing to get these two jobs was no easy ride.
"I was on a WINZ benefit for about year, the amount I was eligible for was $360, so I was living on less than I'm living on now."
While she is passionate about the work she does, it is far from enough.
"I care deeply about the two part-time jobs I'm doing but there's just not enough money there for me to have as much of an impact, they can't afford to pay me for full-time work."
Elise isn't alone in her struggle to secure full-time work.
Craig Renney, economist at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, says the market's so saturated that the number of people settling for any job is also on the up.
"What we're seeing is that growth in that part-time work and often that's a measure of stress in the labour market. This is people who might well want to work full-time, can't find full-time work but will happily take any job just to keep an income coming into their household."
Part-time workers who want more work but can't find it are classified as underemployed.
In the past two years the number of people in this situation has risen by 26 percent.
Now over a fifth of people working part-time are struggling to find more work despite looking.
"In the second quarter of 2023, there were around 92,600 people who were basically looking for more work, couldn't find it, basically were underemployed. That number is now 127,000, so there's an extra 30,000 people just inside a couple of years, who are in that want more work can't get it basket." Renney said.
Olivia Duncan has been unemployed for just over a month, leaving her last job after the company ran out of money and her pay checks stopped coming in.
The job hunt has been no easy ride. After applying for close to 100 full-time roles she has had to expand her search to include part-time work.
"I started off looking for just full-time roles, because I've always worked full-time. But then I expanded to also look for part-time roles, just because I was really needing anything and I figured if I took a part-time role, I could always supplement my income with another part-time role or maybe do some kind of side hustle."
Duncan said most jobs she has applied for have had hundreds of applicants.
While she's now ready to settle for any amount of work, she's keeping an open mind and hopes that even a part-time job will send her career in a new direction.
"I do not have a linear career path at all, my career has been all over the place. This has really made me expand my ideas of where I might like my career to go. I'm considering so many different things."
A patchwork career however, isn't always taken on as a necessity, with some choosing to ditch the linear career for something different.
Amy Wang is all too familiar with creating her own career path.
Suffering from burnout after working in an IT role for seven years, she decided it was time to pave her own way, now following her passions as a musician.
"I quit my job in tech about 2.5 years ago, since then I took a little break after because I was quite burnt out, so I just took a break to rest and try and figure out what I wanted to do and just been trying a whole bunch of things to see what works."
She now works close to seven different jobs; some days teaching music, others producing and performing it, or even leading a kickboxing class.
While it is harder than she expected, she says the benefits are worth it.
"It's just more rewarding, I think, even though it's quite scary I find it more exciting, like I'm creating my own opportunities."
Jeff de Jong, Manager Skills and Employment Policy at the Ministry of Business and Employment told Checkpoint the unemployment rate is forcast to start to reduce from the end of this year.
"Reserve Bank research has shown that during a recession, organisations generally respond to reduced demand for labour by reducing hours first, before resorting to reducing staff numbers. During a recovery, the opposite is true: hours worked by existing employees increase before organisations start bringing on new workers."
"We are currently seeing people wanting more hours than their employer is offering."
"As the economy strengthens and labour demand recovers, underemployment is expected to decline."