Making a Living: Adaptation Strategies of the Rural Underemployed

This paper examines the methods that underemployed families use to manage their resources to meet their needs. Data for the analysis is from survey and in-depth interviews of 33 respondents to the Rural Life Poll. It attempts to combine rural labor market analysis with anthropological field studies to describe the employment characteristics of the rural underemployed as well as the ways by which the underemployed household supports itself The under-employed worker\u27s attitudes towards work, and how underemployed households combine resources to support a family are examined. These resources include the income from other family member\u27s employment, domestic production for home consumption or for sale, financial assistance from various government programs, and the I economy