101,000 people are under-employed in Ireland according to new figures from Eurostat.
People who want to work more hours than their employer can provide and are usually subject to zero hours contracts fall into the category.
About 23% of part-time workers in Ireland are under-employed which is just above the EU average.
Eoin O'Leary of the EU Commission says one of the trends to emerge is that more women are under-employed than men: "So from today's figures we can see that Ireland is just above the EU average for under-employment figures with about 101,000 under-employed, part-time workers,
"That does represent a drop of about 10,000 from last year, so that is worth being positive about.
"We also see with today's figures, as with other EU countries most of those under-employed workers in Ireland are women."