in professions which require less education, skill, experience or ability than they possess. In economic terms, these agents are producing less than their socially optimal output. Collectively, when a lot of individuals produce below their full potential, the economy is in a sub-optimal underemployment equilibrium.[5] Overstaffing Overstaffing refers to the state when firms or other organizations that act as employers in an economy are hiring more people than they need. This is much less common than overqualification. This redundancy invalidates unemployment rates as a signal for the existence of underemployment equilibrium. When firms are overstaffed, they can not achieve their maximum profit levels, which leads to undesirable social consequences such as low GDP growth. Organizations plagued by overstaffing, including not-for-profit organizations, cannot achieve maximum efficiency and their ability to create value according to their mission, vision and purpose will be hampered.[6] Applications and historical examples Underemployment during the Great Depression During the 1930s, Great Depression, U.S. unemployment rate reached 25% and GDP growth rate fell to −13%.[7] The U.S. economy at this period can be characterized by an underemployment equilibrium. On the one hand, many outside forces (including financial instability, hyper-inflation, lack of capital, etc.) created a negative shock to the demand of job market. On the other hand, the first two decades of the 20th century saw rapid advancement in production technologies, which effectively eliminated a large number of skilled jobs. Both of the above forces help create an insufficient demand of labor market during that time, causing an underemployment equilibrium. This particular underemployment equilibrium takes form of overqualification, characterized by high unemployment rate and low household incomes. Underemployment in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis Graduates entering the job market in 2012 faced very tough competitions[8], caused by an oversupply of skilled workers, including fresh graduates and people who were laid off during the 2008 financial crisis. Graduates did not have enough time to respond to the 2008 financial crisis and continued to finish their degrees, only to find that there are not enough jobs upon graduation. This underemployment equilibrium state is characterized by overqualification – many college graduates are taking positions designed for less educated individuals due to gloomy job market conditions.[8] Data The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates monthly the “Underemployment Rate” starting from January, 1948. The underemployment rate has a cyclical trend and is generally higher during recession periods. Similar to the unemployment rate,