An electrical engineer who is teaching physics in a secondary school is said to be

Analyze the question: An electrical engineer is highly trained in one field, but he is working as a physics teacher in a secondary school. We need the term that describes this situation.

Explain the concept: In Economics, employment status is classified like this:

• Unemployed: Willing and able to work but has no job at all.
• Fully employed: Working in a job that matches their skills, qualifications, and capacity, for full hours.
• Under-employed: Working, but not using their full skills, qualifications, or capacity. This includes working fewer hours than they could, or doing a job below their level of training.
• Technically unemployed: Not usually a standard category. It loosely refers to someone whose job exists in name but who is not actually productive.

Solution:

1. The engineer has a job, so he is not unemployed (B is out).
2. He is teaching physics, which is not his area of specialization. His engineering skills are not being used well, so he is not fully employed (C is out).
3. Technical unemployment does not describe a person working productively in a different job (D is out).
4. His skills are being underused, which is the definition of under-employment.

Answer: A. under-employed

Exam tip: Ask yourself two questions. Does the person have a job? If yes, are their skills and hours being fully used? If the job exists but the skills are underused (or the hours are fewer than desired), the answer is under-employment. If there is no job at all, it is unemployment.