State of Large-Scale Underemployment

A State of Large-Scale Underemployment is a societal underemployment state with an underemployment rate that is greater than 33%.

• Context:
  • It can precede (or follow) a State of Large-Scale Unemployment (such as a state of large-scale tech. unemployment).
  • It can range from being a Past State of Large-Scale Underemployment to being a Future State of Large-Scale Underemployment.
  • It can range from being a State of Large-Scale System Underemployment (such as a State of Large-Scale Technological Underemployment) to being ...
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • The Great Depression of the 1930s.
  • Central Europe immediately after WWII, when people scrambled to earn a living in whichever way they could despite their qualifications.
  • a Large-Scale U.S. Underemployment, a Large-Scale Chinese Underemployment, ...
  • ...
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a State of Small-Scale Underemployment (<33%).
  • a State of Full Employment.
• See: Labor Participation Rate, Structural Unemployment, Economic Depression.

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References

2014

• (Smith & Anderson, 2014) ⇒ Aaron Smith, and Janna Anderson. (2014). “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs." Pew Research.
  • QUOTE: Half of these experts (48%) envision a future in which robots and digital agents have displaced significant numbers of both blue- and white-collar workers — with many expressing concern that this will lead to vast increases in income inequality, masses of people who are effectively unemployable, and breakdowns in the social order. The other half of the experts who responded to this survey (52%) expect that technology will not displace more jobs than it creates by 2025.

1983

• (Leontief, 1983) ⇒ Wassily Leontief. (1983). “Technological Advance, Economic Growth, and the Distribution of Income.” In: Population and Development Review, 9(3). doi:10.2307/1973315
  • QUOTE: ... the process by which the introduction of tractors and other machinery first reduced and then completely eliminated horses and other draft animals in agriculture. The competitive price mechanism played a decisive role in this process. Even if horses were ready to accept smaller rations of oats or hay per working day, the process of their gradual elimination would slow down only temporarily; more and more efficient tractors would come along, and finally, unable to compete with superior performance of machines, horses would lose their jobs. The outcome would, moreover, be brought about by the perfect operation of the free competitive price system that would automatically compare the cost of different technologies competing with each other. If horses had controlled the government, this would have been a quite different story. But this brings us back to the problem of human technological unemployment and income distribution.

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