ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an in-depth, qualitative study of underemployed graduates to explore how they made sense of and responded to their underemployment. Underemployment is generally defined in terms of a discrepancy between educational attainment and occupational level, and measured in terms of wage differentials, human capital or education levels and underutilisation of skill. Underemployment is a source of frustration and discontent for individuals with the underemployed faced with challenges to their self-identity, interpersonal relationships and a sense of meaning in life. Most prior research on underemployment has focused on the negative consequences for the individual, organisation and society. Another area of concern relates to the long-term effects of periods of underemployment on graduates' career prospects. Developing a greater understanding of the career implications of graduate underemployment will provide a basis for career guidance interventions that help to prepare graduates for managing and making sense of periods of underemployment.
