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Stephen Gilliam works 40 hours a week as a graphic designer for a government contractor.
In the evening, Gilliam comes home, eats dinner and takes a little break. He then opens his laptop and works on freelance projects designing movie posters. He usually tries to wrap up by 10 p.m., gets some sleep and then starts it all over the next day.
“There are good and bad weeks, but I do my best to try to find that balance,” said 45-year-old Gilliam, who lives in Augusta, Georgia.
Gilliam, who earned his bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of Atlanta, is one of millions of workers with a college education who are taking on multiple jobs, a trend known as “overemployment.”
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These workers are picking up multiple jobs for a number of reasons. Some are pursuing new opportunities to advance or shift their careers. For others, it’s due to financial need given higher prices, stagnant wages and other economic concerns, according to experts.
The February jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that a record-high 8.9 million Americans reported working multiple jobs, representing 5.4% of all employed workers — a rate not seen since April 2009, during the Great Recession.
According to new analysis of overemployed workers by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the share of multiple jobholders with a college degree increased to 50.2% in 2024, up from 50.0% in 2023. The share was 48.6% in 2020, and 45.1% in 2019. The findings are based on data from the Current Population Survey.
But the financial benefits can be slim: Overemployed Americans had an annual average income of $57,865, slightly higher than those with one job, at $56,965, the Fed found.
‘A pretty complex phenomenon’
Working multiple jobs “is a pretty complex phenomenon,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
On one hand, the trend can be driven by opportunity, Pollak said.
Flexible, remote jobs may lend themselves to a side hustle, she said. For example, someone who works in a leadership and management role might also be paid for speaking engagements or consulting work.
“But it is also driven by necessity,” Pollak said.
People may need a second job to supplement income to cover expenses, pay off debt, save for the future, or pursue a different career path while maintaining a primary income, experts say.
Wages generally have not kept up with inflation and essentials like housing costs, said certified financial planner Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.
You have to “work a lot harder to make ends meet,” said McClanahan, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
“If you’re going to try to have some semblance of a traditional life with kids, and a house and transportation, [it] takes a lot of money to do that,” McClanahan said.
Overemployment may also help people cobble together enough work hours as some employers cut back. The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 34.1 hours in February, unchanged from the month prior, but down from 34.2 in December and 34.3 in February 2024, the BLS found.
“If employers are seeing soft demand for labor and cutting hours, that’s another reason why people are taking on additional jobs to fill the week and to fill their bank accounts,” Pollak said.