HCP: 655K People in Underemployment Linked to Working Time in 2020

The active population in a situation of underemployment linked to the working time, reached, in 2020, 655,000 people at the national level against 385,000 a year earlier, according to the High Commission for Planning (HCP).

The share of underemployment linked to working time increased by 20 points between 2019 and 2020, from 38% to 58%, said the HCP in a note on the main characteristics of unemployment and underemployment.

This increase concerned all sectors of economic activity, underlined the same source, noting that the highest increase is noted in the building and public works (BTP) with a rate of 13.2% in 2020 (+5.2 pts), followed by industry including crafts (+2.9 pts), services (+2.4 pts) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (+2.2 pts).

The said note also said that the trades, which have experienced significant increases in the rate of underemployment linked to working time, are craftsmen and skilled workers in craft trades (+4.6 pts to 9.5%), traders and commercial and financial intermediaries (+3.8 pts to 6.3%), non-agricultural laborers, handlers and small trades workers (+3.2 pts to 8.7%), agricultural workers and laborers and fishery workers (+2.7 pts to 6.8%) and plant and machine operators (+2.6 pts to 4.2%).

Conversely, underemployment linked to insufficient income or mismatch between training and the job performed has fallen from 20 pts to 42% in 2020.

The active population employed in a situation of underemployment linked to insufficient income or mismatch between training and the job performed has thus increased, at the national level, from 616,000 people in 2019 to 472,000 in 2020, i.e. rate down from 5.7% to 4.5%.

Globally, the volume of active workers in a situation of underemployment increased at the national level, to 1,127,000 people (619,000 in the cities and 508,000 in the countryside). The rate of underemployment thus stood at 10.7% (10.1% in urban areas and 11.6% in rural areas).