New York Metropolis, United States – For 14 years, BC Dodge constructed a profession telling different folks’s tales as a advertising and communications skilled within the nonprofit sector within the Washington, DC space in america. However in late 2024, that secure profession hit a pace bump.
He was laid off from his job amid a spherical of restructuring. The information landed with out warning. In the future he had a job, and the subsequent he was sitting at residence, staring on the numbers, attempting to determine how one can preserve paying the mortgage and placing meals on the desk.
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He’s married, and his associate is a trainer, however the math didn’t work. One wage may cowl issues for a short time, however not lengthy sufficient to keep up long-term stability.
So he began making use of for brand spanking new work instantly. Over three months, he submitted 350 job functions. He received six interviews.
After months of looking, one thing moved.
He superior within the hiring course of for a Washington, DC–primarily based nonprofit, making it far sufficient to take a seat throughout from senior management. It felt like he lastly caught a break.
Then the bottom shifted once more. As Dodge was interviewing for a brand new job, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was advising the administration of US President Donald Trump on how one can shrink the federal authorities, and that meant slicing funding to companies that present contracts and funds to swaths of nonprofit organisations across the nation. The results rippled outward, and Dodge was caught within the crosshairs.
Contracts have been cancelled and funding streams dried up. Nonprofits that rely on authorities assist needed to pull again and scale down ambitions — these exact same nonprofits from whom Dodge sought employment.
“I received a name from HR saying they weren’t going to rent for the place, and that every one hiring was on maintain. I couldn’t argue with them, as a result of I’d been listening to the identical factor from organisations I’d spoken to since I began making use of. ‘We have been counting on federal funds, and now they’re gone,’” Dodge mentioned.
Then it was again to the drafting board. He started looking but once more, however this time with a cloud of uncertainty looming over your complete business he works in. Dodge lastly took what he may get — part-time work in his discipline. The pay was nicely beneath what he had been incomes earlier than, however he accepted it anyway. Some revenue, he reasoned, was higher than none.
The result’s underemployment. Underemployment can manifest in a number of methods, usually when staff are searching for full-time work however can solely discover part-time positions, or when the roles they work don’t totally utilise their expertise and coaching. It’s usually related to industries like eating places or retail, nevertheless it additionally reaches into fields with fewer sources and shrinking alternatives, together with the nonprofit sector, the place jobs are more and more precarious and full-time stability is tougher to seek out due to the wave of government funding cuts in 2025.
The upshot is decrease incomes for underemployed staff, typically beneath the price of dwelling and even pushing them into the ranks of the working poor.
Underemployment has been on the rise, in accordance with the Financial Coverage Institute, which has tracked the speed of underemployment since 1978. At this time, 8 % of the US inhabitants is underemployed, up 0.5 % from 2024 and it’s up 1.1 % from 2023.
On the identical time, many within the US are seeing their bills improve.
The affect of tariffs has hit low-to-middle-income earners tougher than others. Evaluation from the Yale Funds Lab discovered that lower-income households are paying the next share of their post-tax revenue on items topic to tariffs versus higher-income households, all whereas prices for requirements like healthcare are growing.
Earlier this 12 months, Congressional leaders failed to increase Inexpensive Care Act subsidies. Premiums elevated by a median of 144 %, in accordance with evaluation from the Kaiser Household Basis.
“Some folks have misplaced their jobs and located new ones that pay much less, however others have saved their jobs, however their healthcare premiums have elevated. Their electrical payments have additionally gone up. Their salaries now not cowl fundamental dwelling prices,” Jillian Hishaw, a private chapter lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina, mentioned.
She mentioned that due to elevated prices like these and a stalling job market, she is seeing a rise in inquiries about private chapter filings in efforts by potential shoppers to not lose their houses to foreclosures.
“In at some point final week, 85 foreclosures have been filed in Mecklenburg County [where Charlotte is located]. Foreclosures occur every day, however 85 in a single day is unusually excessive. Two years in the past, the every day common was 10 to twenty, however now filings are approaching triple digits every day,” Hishaw mentioned.
Shrinking choices
The surging financial pressures hit staff throughout varied sectors, together with monetary and administrative companies. An Ohio-based accountant who didn’t need his identify to be printed, has labored a patchwork of accounting and administrative jobs over the previous few years. In March, he was laid off from a analysis organisation in central Ohio.
After months of looking, he discovered new work, however not as an accountant, and the pay falls far in need of protecting his price of dwelling.
“I’m working as a gross sales coordinator, which I actually don’t wish to be doing, nevertheless it was the one factor I may land with how dangerous issues are. It’s not sufficient to reside on,” he mentioned.
The labour market is beneath pressure. Layoffs reached greater than 1.1 million in 2025, in accordance with Challenger, Grey & Christmas, whereas job creation did not preserve tempo, with simply 584,000 jobs added. Because of this, extra staff are settling for underpaid or part-time work that doesn’t meet fundamental dwelling bills, together with Dodge and the accountant.
Michele Evermore, senior fellow on the Nationwide Academy of Social Insurance coverage, says that financial uncertainty pushed by tariffs and developments in artificial intelligence has put companies throughout a large set of sectors basically on pause — sustaining the established order or scaling again.
“People who find themselves already on the margins are getting kicked out totally, and that’s inserting stress on everybody who’s clinging to a job,” Evermore instructed Al Jazeera.
In January, one of many key measures of underemployment, the quantity of people that work part-time for financial causes, resembling an lack of ability to seek out full-time work or had their hours decreased, hit 4.9 million. It was a 453,000 decline from the month earlier than, however is up 410,000 from this time final 12 months, in accordance with the January jobs report launched by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday.
Lengthy-term unemployment jumped 386,000 from this time a 12 months in the past to 1.8 million, though it stays unchanged in contrast with the earlier month.
The nonprofit sector has been hit significantly exhausting within the final 12 months, shedding 28,729 jobs in 2025, up sharply from 5,640 losses the 12 months earlier than, in accordance with Challenger, Grey & Christmas.
Just like the Ohio accountant, Dodge has been trying to find new alternatives since he misplaced his full-time function a 12 months and a half in the past. He has utilized for 460 jobs and solely landed a handful of interviews.
Working weekends, washing dishes
The market is just getting tighter. US employers minimize greater than 108,000 jobs in January, whereas employers solely introduced intentions to rent 5,300 new roles for the month, the bottom on file since Challenger, Grey & Christmas began monitoring that in 2009.
“Employers aren’t desirous to make any massive investments proper now, together with growing salaries to their workforce,” Evermore, who served as a coverage adviser within the US Labor Division through the administration of former US President Joe Biden, added.
In December, labour market turnover remained stagnant. Amid financial uncertainty and a slowdown in new job development, many Individuals are hanging on to the roles they have already got. Job openings fell to six.5 million, down 386,000 from the earlier month, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey (JOLTS).
Hiring and separations, which embrace layoffs and firings, have been unchanged. That adopted November’s report, which equally confirmed little motion in each new hiring and the variety of staff leaving their jobs.
Mixed, that implies that for the underemployed, discovering a brand new function, both part-time to reinforce their current revenue, or to interchange it altogether, is more and more tough for folks just like the accountant.
“I’m additionally working weekends at a good friend’s cafe, washing dishes, and I’m nonetheless making use of and interviewing for different alternatives. However it’s the identical story, no gives. On the identical time, I’m debating whether or not to modify professions and even return to highschool, despite the fact that I have already got a grasp’s diploma,” he mentioned.
That shared misery has additionally created an unlikely sense of camaraderie amongst these struggling to get by, even because the outlook stays bleak.
Dodge finds it in late-night scrolls by way of Reddit, watching strangers narrate variations of the identical stalled search.
“I doomscroll so much,” he mentioned, “getting depressed concerning the state of politics and the worldwide economic system, and taking some solace in figuring out I’m not the one one struggling to seek out viable employment after 12, 13, 14, even 15 months.”
For now, that recognition of others caught in the identical place, hitting the identical partitions, is sufficient to preserve him shifting ahead, submitting functions and ready for a response that may not even come.
