# 4.5. Desire, availability and constraints to work additional hours

Hours worked in paid and unpaid activities support the measurement of time‐related underemployment defined by the 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS as a situation _“when the working time of persons in employment is insufficient in relation to alternative employment situations in which they are willing and available to engage”_ (ILO, 2013, §40a). In addition to hours worked, time‐related underemployment requires questions on both desire and availability to work more (Benes and Walsh, 2018b). The Guatemala and South Africa LFS are the only reviewed LFS that include questions on both desire and availability to work.<sup>21</sup> The majority of LFS either focus on availability or desire to work. For instance, the 2014 Nicaragua and 2014 Tanzania LFS only include questions on availability,<sup>22</sup> while the 2013 Malawi and 2009 Uganda LFS only ask questions related to the desire to work additional hours.<sup>23</sup> Like LFS, LSMS‐ISA surveys do not include questions on both desire and availability. The 2016/17 Malawi and 2013/14 Uganda LSMS‐ISA survey exclusively collect data on the desire to work more. The Malawi LSMS‐ISA survey asks _‘If you were offered a wage job, would you be willing to accept it?’_ , while the Uganda LSMS‐ISA survey asks _‘Would [name] have liked to work more hours than [name] actually worked, provided the extra hours had been paid’._<sup>_24_</sup> Figure 5 shows that in both countries almost 50% of the employed population aged 15 to 65 would be willing to work more, especially men in Uganda (51% versus 47%) and women in Malawi (49% versus 44%). Because questions on ‘availability to work more hours’ are missing, we do not know whether the respondents could indeed work more when offered the opportunity.

The LSMS‐ISA surveys in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger and Mali, instead, only capture the availability to work more hours, but use different reference periods or response options (next month, immediately, yes/no). Figure 5 shows that few respondents in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger and Mali are available to start a new job. Thus, just including questions on ‘desire to work’ without considering who is actually available to work more is not informative. For this reason, Benes and Walsh (2018b) recommend asking a question about availability only if the respondent wants to work more hours. This would facilitate measuring time‐related underemployment.

> 21 The Guatemala LFS starts with the question _‘In addition to the number of hours that you actually work in all your activities, would you like to work more hours per week?’_ , followed by _‘If you were offered an additional job or to work additional hours in your actual employment: 1.Would you be available immediately?; 2.Would you prefer starting in a month?’_ (original version in Spanish). Similarly, the South Africa LFS first asks _‘Do you want to work more hours at your current rate of pay?’_ and then _‘If extra work became available, would you be able to start such work in the next four weeks?’._

> 22 The Guatemala and South Africa LFS include the question _‘Are you usually available to work more hours?’._ In addition, the Nicaragua LFS includes the question _‘If extra work became available, would you be able to start such work in the next 15 days?’_ The Ethiopia LFS only asks _‘If opportunities to work exist in the coming one month, are you willing and ready to work for income/earning?’._

> 23 The Malawi LFS includes the questions _‘In the last week, would you have liked to work more hours than you actually worked provided the extra hours had been paid?’_ , while the Uganda LFS asks _‘Do you want to work 20 hours or more per week at this job?’._

> 24 _Response options: Yes, in the current job; Yes, in taking an additional job; Yes, in a different job with more hours; No; Don’t know._

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