Overemployment mismatches: the preference for fewer work hours

Abstract

work in a given job are widely acknowledged as a central feature of the labor market and, in many conventional economic studies, of labor supply For the purpose of this article, overemployment occurs when a worker's desired hours of labor supply is exceeded by hours of labor demanded at their current pay rate. This article identifies empirically the demographic and job factors associated with being overemployed, and the extent one may be willing to reduce hours of work at one's current (or suitable alternative) job for less income. Unlike previous studies of hours constraints, the focus here is less on underemployment—the desire for more hours and income—even though under employment is more common and may be more adverse to worker welfare.1 However, overemployment has considerable spillover (hidden) social costs. Facilitating a reduc tion in overemployment with appropriately targeted policy may potentially reduce the extent of underemployment, at least in sec tors and workplaces where they co-exist.2 The research for this article relies on

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