'This is the first time there have been over one million multiple job-holders in the Australian labour market'
'This is the first time there have been over one million multiple job-holders in the Australian labour market'
Body: The number of Australians juggling multiple jobs reached one million for the first time in the December quarter of 2024, according to the country's statistics bureau.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a 1.7% increase to the number of multiple jobholders across the country, pushing their numbers to one million.
"This is the first time there have been over one million multiple job-holders in the Australian labour market," said Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, in a statement.
The multiple jobholding rate also saw an increase of 0.1 percentage points to lift it to around the record high of 6.7%, according to the report.
"The rate has remained above six per cent – or around one in every fifteen people – for the past three years, since December quarter 2021," Jarvis said. "This compares with it generally being around five to six per cent during the 25 years before the pandemic."
According to the ABS, women continue to be more likely to be multiple jobholders, with 7.6% of employed women working multiple jobs, compared with six per cent of men.
Younger employees, or those aged between 20 and 24 years old, are also most likely to be multiple jobholders (9%) than their older counterparts.
By industry, there was strong growth in the number of multiple jobholders in the healthcare and social assistance industry, rising by 4,000 to reach nearly 200,000 multiple jobholders.
The highest multiple job-holding rate, however, was logged in the administrative and support services industry, with 9.2%.
"It is important to note that some industries lend themselves to multiple job-holding," the ABS said.
"For example, some workers in Agriculture, forestry and fishing may work several seasonal jobs for different employers in addition to their main job; and some labour hire workers may work for a number of businesses in Administrative and support services."
