There are now 867,900 Australians working multiple jobs – the highest number since the ABS began tracking secondary jobs in 1994.
Worse yet, there are now a record number of Australians working three or more jobs – 209,100 – a shocking 10.8% increase from June 2020.
Released today, a new ACTU report has also revealed that workers who do multiple jobs still earn 17.5% less than the national average – usually people just working one job.
Women working multiple jobs are significantly worse off than men earning almost $10,000 less per year than their male counterparts. 53.7% of multiple jobs holders are women.
Millennials and Generation Z are most affected – 55% of workers with 2 or more jobs are under 35.
The surge in people working multiple jobs is being driven employers offering insecure work, often to deal with the pandemic itself. Multiple job holding has surged most in administrative and support services where cleaners, security guards and call centres workers have been taken on.
Healthcare and social assistance also saw one of the largest increases in multiple job holding. Workers in this sector are already overworked and underpaid, whilst being on the pandemic frontline.
Two in five jobs created since the initial lockdowns of 2020 have been for people holding more than one job.
Working across multiple locations has also been proven to pose a huge Covid health risk for both workers and their patients yet is a growing solution for employers able to exploit Australia’s weak workplace laws.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
“The Morrison Government has smashed yet another record: the most Australians working two or more jobs ever.
“The record number of Australians working three or more jobs is a deeply concerning trend. The Morrison Government is overseeing the erosion of the financial security that secure employment has provided for generations of Australian workers.
“The Morrison Government urgently needs to address the insecure jobs crisis plaguing this country. Australian workers have been doing it extremely tough for almost two years.
“How do working people with multiple, insecure jobs plan for a life outside of work? The Morrison Government needs to act to ensure that working Australians have the quality of life that all working people should be able to rely on.
“More than half of those with two or more jobs are women. As usual women are left worse off. This Government refuses to prioritise even the most basic of women’s rights.”
