Feeling overqualified? Problem may be particularly bad in Utah

Jeff Crockett is frustrated with his job situation.

Despite receiving his master's degree in accounting from Utah State University in 2003, he has been unable to get the job he worked hard to receive — a job that pays well, allows him to perform the work he was trained to do and returns benefits in line with his talent level.

But Crockett isn't unemployed.

He works at the Eccles Ice Center in North Logan in an accounting position. Crockett is making money and getting by.

So what's all the fuss about?

"I'm basically a highly qualified bookkeeper who gets to drive a Zamboni around every once in a while," Crockett said. "Any average accounting student could be doing this. I was doing this before I had a degree in accounting."

Crockett is among the growing ranks of the underemployed. He has a job but not in a position that matches his skills, talents, education level or compensation expectations.

Yet a precise definition of underemployment is hard to find, because the term covers many different situations and many kinds of people.

"Underemployment typically refers to a situation where individuals have the training, knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a job that is greater than the job they currently hold," said David Cherrington, professor of organizational behavior at Brigham Young University.

Utah residents are probably finding themselves in underemployment situations in greater frequency relative to other states, Cherrington said.

"I think it's a little more serious in Utah than in other states, because we have an excellent educational system, we place a high value on education in our culture and are predominantly (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)," Cherrington said. "It would suggest that our underemployment rate would be a little bit greater than in other places in the nation."

"I'm a little bit frustrated," Crockett said. "Looking for a job is not fun. It would be nice to have some money. A good job would definitely bump me up. You'd think with a master's degree I'd do a lot better than that."

Compounding the problem of understanding underemployment is the difficulty in measuring exactly who or how many people are underemployed. Federal and state governments don't officially measure underemployment like they measure unemployment.

"(Measuring underemployment) could be done if you were doing it as a research project," Cherrington said. "We could use a point method for evaluating jobs and measure someone's knowledge, skills and abilities on a massive scale. It wouldn't be hard to use, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that."

Attempts have been made to understand those who are underemployed, however.