underemployed

adjective

un·​der·​em·​ployed ˌən-dər-im-ˈplȯid 

: having less than full-time, regular, or adequate employment

Examples of underemployed in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even underemployed graduates, 52% work in roles not requiring degrees, prefer retail or office jobs over dirty work, despite lower pay. —Jack Kelly, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025

These jobs exist in Boston’s core and provide a clear path to the middle class for those unemployed, underemployed workers, veterans, and or union workers looking to upgrade their skills, and those with employment challenges such as CORIs. —Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 9 Mar. 2024

The education system’s college-for-all model is overproducing underemployed knowledge workers. —Oren Cass, Foreign Affairs, 16 Jan. 2025

His verdict was not unique to underemployed freelance writers in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. —Matthew Karp, Harper's Magazine, 2 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1908, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for underemployed

• corticosteroid
• adenoid
• alkaloid
• amoeboid
• amyloid
• aneroid
• anthropoid
• arachnoid
• asteroid
• benzenoid
• carcinoid
• celluloid