Nearly Half of American Workers Are Juggling Multiple Jobs

A Monster survey cited by The HR Digest in July 2025 found that 47% of U.S. workers are currently holding more than one job. Not as a passion project. Not for "career fulfillment." For 51% of those workers, the extra income is described as "absolutely essential" — meaning without it, they can't pay basic bills.

The UK Picture Is Just as Ugly

Across the Atlantic, the UK's Office for National Statistics recorded 1.35 million people holding second jobs in 2025 — a record high, according to BBC News. The number has since dipped slightly to 1.3 million, but it remains historically elevated.

BBC News profiled Billy-Jo Pierce, 29, from Bristol. She works 50 to 60 hours a week: running a cosmetic gem business, pulling reception shifts until 11 PM, bartending on weekends, and selling clothes online. She now lives in a van to cut costs. She still worries constantly about money.

"Work is a lot and I still feel like I'm not earning a good monthly wage to ever get close to owning a house," Pierce told BBC News.

Bristol is the UK's second most expensive city. The unemployment rate recently hit 5%. Job vacancies are at their lowest in five years, per AOL's reporting of the same data set. The gig economy has expanded sharply to fill the gap.

This Isn't New — And It's Been Undercounted

The U.S. Census Bureau published findings in February 2021 — authored by economists Keith A. Bailey and James R. Spletzer — showing that multiple jobholding in America has been rising for over two decades. Using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) dataset, they tracked the rate from 6.8% in Q2 1996 to 7.8% by Q1 2018.

The more commonly cited Current Population Survey (CPS) showed the opposite trend — a decline in multiple jobholding over the same period. Bailey and Spletzer explicitly note the two datasets contradict each other, and that "no simple nor straightforward explanation" exists for the divergence.

The government's headline numbers on multiple jobholding have likely been undercounting the problem for years. The real scale is bigger than official statistics suggest.

The Buzzword Problem

The HR Digest calls it "polyworking." LinkedIn calls it a lifestyle. Certain media outlets frame it as Gen Z and millennials boldly "prioritizing autonomy" over the boring old single-employer model.

64% of workers are planning for a second job or side hustle because of inflation and economic anxiety, per a survey cited by The HR Digest. Yes, some people genuinely choose multiple roles for skill development and career exploration. But dressing up a cost-of-living crisis as a generational values shift removes focus from the underlying economic pressures.

Who's Actually Doing This

According to the Census Bureau's LEHD research, women hold multiple jobs at a higher rate than men, and that gap has widened over the past 20 years. This gets almost zero attention in the mainstream coverage, which tends to profile younger, entrepreneurial types.

The Monster survey, cited by The HR Digest, found about half of polyworkers hold a full-time job alongside one or more part-time gigs. These aren't all hustle-culture enthusiasts building personal brands. Many are people with stable primary employment who still can't make rent.

The Mental Health Bill Is Coming Due

The same Monster survey found 26% of workers believe long-term polyworking could negatively impact their mental health. Burnout is already showing up. Pierce told BBC News flatly: "The burn out is real."

Beauty industry material costs have risen more than 90% over the past decade, per research cited by AOL. That figure applies across plenty of small-business sectors. When input costs double while wages stagnate, working two or three jobs becomes necessary arithmetic.

What the Coverage Gets Wrong

Left-leaning outlets like BBC frame this primarily as a cost-of-living and inequality story — which is partially accurate — but rarely ask whether government policy (taxation, regulation, housing restrictions, inflationary spending) created the conditions. They report the suffering without interrogating the cause.

HR and business media outlets repackage financial desperation as a workplace evolution story, complete with jargon like "polyworking" that makes grinding three jobs sound aspirational. That framing benefits employers who pay wages too low to live on.

Neither side is giving people the full picture.

What This Means for You

If you're one of the 47% of Americans or 1.3 million Brits holding multiple jobs: wages that can't support a single household on a single income aren't a personal failure — they're a policy failure.

When governments respond to that failure by spending more, borrowing more, and printing more, they make inflation worse — which makes that second job even more necessary. The cycle perpetuates a workforce too exhausted to organize, too fragmented to demand better, and too busy surviving to notice.