Is Any Job Better Than No Job? Utilising Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Theory to Reconceptualise Underemployment

Vanessa Beck, Tracey Warren and Clare Lyonette
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Vanessa Beck: University of Bristol, UK
Tracey Warren: University of Nottingham, UK
Clare Lyonette: University of Warwick, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2025, vol. 39, issue 2, 404-425

Abstract: Underemployment is a widely discussed but complex concept. This article progresses discussions and provides a new sociological conceptualisation. It builds on a classic theory of unemployment, Jahoda et al.’s ‘latent deprivation theory’ (LDT), that identified five ‘latent functions’ provided by jobs, besides a wage: time structure, social relations, sense of purpose/achievement, personal identity and regular activity. LDT was ground-breaking in illuminating previously hidden injuries of joblessness. This article proposes that LDT can be similarly ground-breaking for reconceptualising underemployment: it demonstrates conceptually the multiple ways in which the mere existence of a job is insufficient in protecting individuals from socially and psychologically negative impacts associated with unemployment. A sociology of underemployment can help better understand complex, shifting and precarious work and expose inherent forms of suffering and injustice.

Keywords: Jahoda; job quality; latent deprivation; precarious work; skills; sociology of work and employment; time; underemployment; unemployment; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:39:y:2025:i:2:p:404-425

DOI: 10.1177/09500170241254794

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