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Amazon survey finds more than half of US workers say coronavirus has left them underemployed

More than half of the U.S. workers seeking work say their job hunt is due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That's a key finding of a new survey by e-commerce giant Amazon, which found that a quarter of U.S. workers are looking for new employment, while 27% say that at least some of their skills won't be of use in the job market in the next five years.

The survey, conducted by Morning Consult between Aug. 21 and 28, comes at a time when the nation's unemployment rate hovers at 8.4% as the economy haltingly returns from a shutdown sparked in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Among workers, 36% say they are not working as many hours as they want to or are taking on tasks that don't tap their primary skills. And of that group, 53% say they are underemployed or underutilized because of the pandemic.

Amazon released the poll on the eve of a career fair it is hosting on September 16 to fill tens of thousands of positions.