Local labour markets, workforce planning and underemployment

Underemployment in the UK and other European economies – that is people looking for a new job with longer hours, or wanting longer hours in their current job – has risen since the 2008–9 financial crisis. This article informs policy debates on how underemployment can be addressed in the UK. It deploys a mixed methods research design, which is necessary to identify how labour market conditions shape workforce planning, including establishment-level labour hoarding over a variety of temporal scales through underemployment. The authors analyse quantitative data identifying greater underemployment risks in less productive local economies and ‘slacker’ local labour markets (but note complex differences across rural and urban areas). They complement this with qualitative data drawing on exploratory interviews with employer representatives and identify the potential importance of both labour market conditions and business models in shaping workforce planning decisions that affect underemployment risks. The authors discuss priorities for labour market and employment policy.