33% of people hold more than one role, making it the second highest rate worldwide, just behind Australia at 34%, Employment Hero’s latest Annual Jobs Report has found.
30% of Kiwis reported working multiple jobs just to make enough money.
Many people were also working additional hours, with 43% reporting that they do overtime.
Country manager Neil Webster said the increasing trend of more people working part-time or casual jobs and holding multiple roles may be due to demand and supply factors.
“It is harder to survive on a part-time job than it was before, but it’s also an indication that employers’ confidence in hiring maybe isn’t quite where it should be either,” he said.
“So they’re willing to commit to providing casual employment, which is sort of easier to scale up and scale down.
“If you don’t have a lot of confidence in the business in taking on full-time employees, you might resort to employing people on a casual basis, which is a lot more flexible.”
“But as I said, it’s less secure. If you can’t get the hours that you need to sustain yourself, you have to take another job,” he said.
The report also revealed that working multiple jobs for financial reasons is not only a young person’s issue, with one in five people aged 55 and over doing so, while nearly half (47%) of those aged 18-24 are holding multiple jobs.
“I guess some of that will be driven by lifestyle choices, you know, people wanting to maybe have not a full-time gig as they kind of wind into retirement,” Webster said.
“But some of it is maybe not by choice and simply a fact of what it is that they can find out there in the market, with it being harder and harder for older people to get secure full-time roles.”
Webster said this could have a ripple effect on small and medium-sized businesses.
“We talk to SME owners every day who feel the impact of poly-employment. More and more we’re hearing employees are exhausted.
“This is where productivity takes a hit and businesses are left carrying the weight. When people are working nights and weekends just to keep up with the cost of living, it’s not sustainable.
Webster said policymakers should prioritise cost-of-living assistance and initiatives aimed at SMEs.
“For businesses, the responsibility is to put real, accessible support in place for staff.”