Aussies Choosing to Pursue Secondary Jobs Continue to Rise

In recent years, especially post COVID-19 pandemic and with the rise in cost of living and interest rates, Australia has seen the biggest expansion of casual employment.  Why are so many Aussies choosing to pursue secondary jobs?

Despite the most obvious reasons of trying to earn an extra income as cost of living and economic uncertainty rise, employees pursue alternative forms of work for many other reasons to suit their lifestyle and existing commitments.  There are many benefits to both employees and employers with the rise in people taking on second or multiple jobs.

One of the key benefits of employees having a secondary income source (noting that in the great majority of cases, they are in different sectors of their primary jobs), is the chance to diversify their skillset and exposing themselves to how different industries work.  For employers, these employees who choose a second gig may bring with them fresh and relevant knowledge to the role.

In addition to this, a second gig allows the employee flexibility in dipping their toes into an area that they want to pursue first before choosing this to be a dream career. Post pandemic has opened up these possibilities and new opportunities for people looking to supplement their jobs and for employers in seeing the value of employees who choose to work flexibly.

The increase in multiple job holdings for employees especially in a high vacancy such as hospitality or aged care is not surprising and appears to be a choice factor rather than for income, for if they were pursuing income alone, they would presumably ask for more hours to stay with their current employer especially if they were given the opportunity to work flexibly. Most workers seek the flexibility of picking and choosing hours across more than one organisation for the reason that they are able to select the hours they want and the time of the day or week to work, and the diversity of the work they do.

Pinnacle People supports this easy pathway of a second job or gig for both employees and employers alike, as we are aware of responsibilities and obligations that surrounds key aspects of casual employment in various industries.  We can only anticipate the number of people working more than one job would continue to grow, along with the number of job vacancies.