This article analyses factors behind underemployment in Norway, with a focus on gender. The analysis, based on Labour Force Survey data, shows that economic fluctuations during the latest decade and a half have brought about changing underemployment levels among both women and men. The Norwegian labour market is strongly gender segregated and the processes and characteristics of underemployment differ between male- and female-dominated labour market sectors. The former sectors are generally more sensitive to economic fluctuations than the latter. It is indicated that underemployed men are predominantly temporarily expelled on a part-time basis from their jobs, while women are to a larger extent permanently excluded from longer working-hour contracts in their jobs.
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