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Multiple jobholding during the 2000s
Steven F. Hipple
Steven F. Hipple is an economist in the Division of Labor Force Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Email: hipple.steve@bls.gov
Multiple jobholding has held steady in recent years; most workers who moonlight do so for economic reasons.
In 2009, 7.3 million workers held more than one job, and the multiple jobholding rate—the proportion of total employment made up of multiple jobholders—was 5.2 percent. Both the number of multiple jobholders and the rate of multiple jobholding have been stable in recent years and remain below the levels recorded during the mid-1990s. Among most of the major demographic groups, "moonlighting" has become less common in recent years compared with the mid-to-late 1990s.
Information on multiple jobholding is available from the Current Population Survey (CPS).1 Since 1994, data on multiple jobholding have been collected on a monthly basis in the CPS. Before 1994, data on multiple jobholding were collected periodically in CPS supplemental surveys. The availability of monthly estimates allows for better examination of the characteristics of multiple jobholders and for the determination of whether multiple jobholding is responsive to recent cyclical changes in economic conditions.2 This article discusses the measurement of multiple jobholding, addresses historical trends, and provides an overview of the characteristics of multiple jobholders.
This excerpt is from an article published in the July 2010 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.
Footnotes
1 The CPS is a nationwide sample survey of about 60,000 households that is conducted monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPS collects information about the demographic characteristics and employment status of the civilian noninstitutional working-age population (age 16 and over).
2 The regular collection of data on multiple jobholding has proven to be useful in reconciling the differences in employment levels and trends between data from the CPS and those from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. For more information on reconciling data from the CPS and the CES survey, see Employment from the BLS household and payroll surveys: summary of recent trends (Bureau of Labor Statistics), on the Internet at www.bls.gov/web/ces_cps_trends.pdf (visited July 1, 2010).
At Issue: Reasons for working multiple jobs—Oct. 2000.
Characteristics of multiple jobholders, 1995.—Mar. 1997.
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