Poll: 40% of Global Workforce Employed Full-Time in 2009, 2010

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A new Gallup poll released Wednesday shows that countries of the former Soviet Union had the highest rate of full-time employment by an employer in 2009 and 2010.

The poll is a part of Gallup's Employed Full Time for an Employer Index, which rates the precentage of workers in "good" jobs. Those types of jobs are listed as ones that are more than just "subsistence jobs that do little to raise individuals out of poverty or contribute to the country's formal economic output," according to Gallup.

Europe had the second-highest percentage of workers employed by an employer -- rather than self-employed -- at 56 percent, with the Americas a close third at 52 percent. The Americas also topped the charts with a 24 percent underemployment rate. Underemployment occurs when an individual works at a job he or she is overqualified for and is not working at their desired capacity.

Overall, the percentage of workers in full-time jobs for an employer sits at 40 percent. There is relatively little data for comparison to previous years because this is the first time that Gallup has undertaken such an exhaustive study in this area. The poll surveyed almost 1,000 adults throughout 129 countries.

The Index also found that the higher the Gross Domestic Product per capita in a country, the higher the percentage of workers who were employed full-time for an employer. Surprisingly, there was no direct correlation between the opposite -- GDP per capita and unemployment.

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