“It's (not) the economy, stupid”: wasted opportunities (apologies to James Carville)

Purpose - Taking a broad review of the management and economics literature, the purpose of this paper is to examine how the recent “Great Recession” has had a disproportionate adverse impact on US labor markets and created social disruptions to professional workers experiencing persistent unemployment or underemployment. Design/methodology/approach - Secondary data analysis shows how the recent recession has had a disproportionate impact on employment. Recognizing underemployment as a potentially persistent state, the authors delineate the extent and consequences of underemployment. Findings - Analyses of unemployment and underemployment resulting from the recent recession suggest it has had a particularly severe detrimental impact on worker benefits, incomes and employment prospects for most US workers. Research limitations/implications - Secondary data analysis is a major limitation but results justify a call for further research into the potential increase in the long‐term economic displacement of professional workers. Originality/value - This paper is unique in applying economic and management constructs in an analysis of the origins, consequences and recommendations for decreasing the rising level of underemployment among professional US workers.