Why it’s important young, unemployed Australians get a good job instead of just ‘any’ job

We often hear young people need to get a job – any job – but what if the problem isn’t whether they’re working or not, but the kind of job they end up in?

New research in the Australian Journal of Social Issues shows many young people who are in roles where they’re not working to their full capacity are also in low-quality jobs.

Drawing on more than a decade of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, my research examines young workers between the ages of 20 and 34 who were underemployed in one of three ways:

• they wanted more hours (time-related underemployment)

• they were underpaid for the work they did (wage-related underemployment)

• they weren’t using their skills in their current job (skills-related underemployment).

Job quality matters

Research shows poor jobs are linked to worse mental health, psychological distress and low job satisfaction.

In my research, I focused on three aspects of job quality – how demanding and complex the work is, how much control a worker has over their work and how secure they feel in their job. Underemployment affects all three.

When young people are underemployed, they also report having less control over their work and feeling less secure. They found these jobs were also less demanding and complex. They were boring.

This applied to both men and women.

Low wages and job security

Overall, young people earning less than they should also felt less secure in their jobs. But underpaid young women also reported significantly lower job control. So, they faced a double disadvantage.

Gender also mattered when it came to working fewer hours than they wanted.

While young women who were underemployed reported lower job security, men who wanted more hours didn’t feel any less secure than men with sufficient hours.

This suggests that for young women, working fewer hours isn’t just about lost income – it’s tied to a deeper sense of job insecurity.

These patterns applied whether or not someone was in a casual job. Young people in permanent roles could still be underemployed or in bad jobs. In other words, underemployment and poor job quality aren’t just a feature of casual or gig work.

It can be harder for women

While similar proportions of young men and women experienced underemployment related to time and skills, young women were more likely to experience wage-related underemployment.

For example, casual, lower-paid work often occurred in feminised sectors such as care and hospitality. These jobs are more likely to be overlooked and undervalued, even when they require significant skill.

These gendered patterns reflect the kinds of jobs young women are often funnelled into.

For young women, this can compound existing disadvantages over the course of their lives, especially when they’re in roles that are consistently undervalued.

Youth unemployment is only part of the problem

Politicians have long pushed the idea that young people should be “earning or learning”, to avoid the scourge of unemployment. But this thinking focuses too narrowly on youth unemployment and ignores a crucial question: are these jobs any good?

My research challenges that idea.

Underemployment is often hidden in plain sight. Someone might be working full-time, but still be underemployed. This is true if they’re underpaid, working below their qualification level, or not getting the hours they want.

To fix this, we need to pay greater attention to underemployment and to the quality of the jobs young people are doing. Too often, economists and policymakers are focused on the youth (un)employment rate, but that only tells half the story.