IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v31y2020i3p383-402.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multiple jobs? The prevalence, intensity and determinants of multiple jobholding in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Glavin

Abstract

While traditional labour market estimates indicate that there has been little change in the proportion of workers holding multiple jobs in North America, survey instrument deficiencies may be hiding more substantial growth driven by the gig economy. To address this possibility, I test a broader measure of multiple jobholding to examine its prevalence in the Canadian workforce based on two national studies of workers (2011 Canadian Work Stress and Health Study and 2019 Canadian Quality of Work and Economic Life Study). Almost 20% of workers in 2019 reported multiple jobholding – a rate that is three times higher than Statistics Canada estimates. While multivariate analyses reveal that the multiple jobholding rate in 2019 was 30% higher than in the 2011 Canadian Work Stress and Health Study, multiple jobholders in 2019 were less likely to report longer work hours in secondary employment. Analyses also revealed that having financial difficulties is consistently associated with multiple jobholding in 2011 and 2019. Collectively, these findings suggest that while the spread of short-term work arrangements has facilitated Canadians’ secondary employment decisions, for many workers these decisions may reflect underlying problems in the quality of primary employment in Canada, rather than labour market opportunity. I discuss the potential links between multiple jobholding, the gig economy and employment precariousness. JEL Code: J21

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Glavin, 2020. "Multiple jobs? The prevalence, intensity and determinants of multiple jobholding in Canada," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 383-402, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:383-402
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304620933399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1035304620933399
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1035304620933399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    2. Heather Dickey & Verity Watson & Alexandros Zangelidis, 2011. "Is it all about money? An examination of the motives behind moonlighting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(26), pages 3767-3774.
    3. Bamberry, L & Campbell, I, 2012. "Multiple Job Holders in Australia: Motives and Personal Impact," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 293-314.
    4. Sung‐Hee Jeon & Huju Liu & Yuri Ostrovsky, 2021. "Measuring the gig economy in Canada using administrative data," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(4), pages 1638-1666, November.
    5. Olena Kostyshyna & Etienne Lalé, 2022. "On the evolution of multiple jobholding in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 1095-1134, May.
    6. Abraham Katharine G. & Amaya Ashley, 2019. "Probing for Informal Work Activity," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 35(3), pages 487-508, September.
    7. Zhongmin Wu & Mark Baimbridge & Yu Zhu, 2009. "Multiple job holding in the United Kingdom: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(21), pages 2751-2766.
    8. Barry T. Hirsch & Muhammad M. Husain & John V. Winters, 2016. "Multiple job holding, local labor markets, and the business cycle," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-29, December.
    9. Susan Houseman & Alice Nakamura (ed.), 2001. "Working Time in Comparative Perspective, Volume 2: Life-Cycle Working Time and Nonstandard Work," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wtcp2.
    10. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 2019. "The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995–2015," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(2), pages 382-416, March.
    11. Sabine Klinger & Enzo Weber, 2020. "Secondary job holding in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(30), pages 3238-3256, June.
    12. Georgios A. Panos & Konstantinos Pouliakas & Alexandros Zangelidis, 2014. "Multiple Job Holding, Skill Diversification, and Mobility," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 223-272, April.
    13. Shishko, Robert & Rostker, Bernard, 1976. "The Economics of Multiple Job Holding," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(3), pages 298-308, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giorgos Gouzoulis & Panagiotis (Takis) Iliopoulos & Giorgos Galanis, 2023. "Financialisation, Underemployment, & the Disconnected Greek Capitalism," Working Papers 112, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    2. Noor Jehan, 2024. "What Matters for Second Job Pay in Higher Education in Northern Pakistan?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(3), pages 783-800, September.
    3. Giorgos Gouzoulis & Panagiotis (Takis) Iliopoulos & Giorgos Galanis, 2023. "Financialization and the rise of atypical work," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 24-45, March.
    4. Gholipour, Hassan F. & Kalantari, Hassan D. & Kousary, Mohammad, 2022. "Self-employment and Life Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Perceived Importance of Family, Friends, Leisure Time, and Work," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 100(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wieteke Conen & Jonas Stein, 2021. "A panel study of the consequences of multiple jobholding: enrichment and depletion effects," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(2), pages 219-236, May.
    2. Olena Kostyshyna & Etienne Lalé, 2022. "On the evolution of multiple jobholding in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 1095-1134, May.
    3. Conen, Wieteke, 2020. "Multiple jobholding in Europe: Structure and dynamics," WSI Studies 20, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    4. Etienne Lalé, 2019. "Search and Multiple Jobholding," Upjohn Working Papers 19-305, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Wieteke Conen & Paul de Beer, 2021. "When two (or more) do not equal one: an analysis of the changing nature of multiple and single jobholding in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(2), pages 165-180, May.
    6. Konstantinos Pouliakas & Wieteke S. Conen, 2023. "Multiple job-holding: Career pathway or dire straits?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 3562-3562, December.
    7. Agnieszka Piasna & Marcello Pedaci & Jan Czarzasty, 2021. "Multiple jobholding in Europe: features and effects of primary job quality," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(2), pages 181-199, May.
    8. Philipp Lentge, 2022. "Second job holding in Germany – a persistent feature?," Working Paper Series in Economics 416, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    9. Noor Jehan, 2024. "What Matters for Second Job Pay in Higher Education in Northern Pakistan?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(3), pages 783-800, September.
    10. Sum Lo Simon Ming, 2023. "Desired work-leisure balance in a partial equilibrium job search model with multiple job holding," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-43, December.
    11. Sabine Raeder, 2018. "Psychological Contracts of Multiple Jobholders: A Multilevel Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, May.
    12. Wieteke Conen & Karin Schulze Buschoff, 2021. "Introduction to the special issue: multiple jobholding in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(2), pages 141-147, May.
    13. Renna Francesco & Oaxaca Ronald L. & Choe Chung, 2023. "Is There a Business Cycle Effect on the Incidence of Dual Job Holding?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(2), pages 443-465, April.
    14. Lalé, Etienne, 2016. "The Evolution of Multiple Jobholding in the U.S. Labor Market: The Complete Picture of Gross Worker Flows," IZA Discussion Papers 10355, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Hlouskova, Jaroslava & Tsigaris, Panagiotis, 2020. "A behavioral economic approach to multiple job holdings with leisure," IHS Working Paper Series 23, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    16. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 2019. "Understanding Trends in Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States," NBER Working Papers 25425, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Barry T. Hirsch & Muhammad M. Husain & John V. Winters, 2017. "The Puzzling Pattern of Multiple Job Holding across U.S. Labor Markets," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 26-51, July.
    18. Alison Preston & Robert E. Wright, 2020. "Exploring the gender difference in multiple job holding," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 301-328, July.
    19. Mohamed Mousa & Monowar Mahmood, 2023. "Mental Illness of Management Educators: Does Holding Multiple Academic Jobs Play a Role? A Qualitative Study," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 647-665, June.
    20. Merja Kauhanen, 2021. "Multiple job holding in the changing labour market Рevidence from Finland," Working Papers 331, Ty̦n ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Employment conditions; gig economy; informal economy; labour markets; multiple jobholding; secondary employment; sociology of work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:383-402. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.