Australia’s retail industry holds the third-largest collection of multiple job holders compared to other industries, Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealed.
This is despite ongoing reports of staff shortages across retail.
Overall, the number of multiple job holders increased to 947,000 people across all industries in the March quarter 2023, up 2.1%.
For the March quarter, retail now holds 90,100 multi-job holders at a rate of 6.1%. This is just behind accommodation and food services (101,500), with healthcare and social services holding the largest share at 155,100.
The retail industry held 1,536,500 jobs in the same quarter, with 36,400 vacancies recorded in the February 2023 quarter - down from a high 49,900 in the November 2022 quarter.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said the overall number of multi-job holders is a “record high” in recent years.
“This was an increase of 19,000 people since the December quarter and 173,000 higher than before the pandemic,” Jarvis said.
“The multiple job-holding rate was 6.6 per cent in the March quarter 2023 – up slightly from a rounded 6.6 per cent in the December quarter 2022. In the December quarter 2019, before the start of the pandemic, it was 5.8 per cent.”
“This is the highest the multiple job-holding rate has been in the Labour Account data that goes back to 1994.
“It means that around one in fifteen people now have more than one job.”
ABS defines multiple job holders as those who have received payment summaries from more than one employer in a 31-day period.
Jarvis said the data shows that a higher proportion of women are multi-job holders than men - 7.7% and 5.7% respectively.
“Younger people are also more likely to hold multiple jobs, with 7.9 per cent of people aged 15-19 and 8.9 per cent of 20-24 year-olds holding multiple jobs,” Jarvis said.
People who were community and personal service workers in their main job were most likely of all occupation groups to have more than one job (10.2%). Multiple job-holding was lowest among technicians and trade workers (3.4%).
Meanwhile, hours worked increased by 0.5% in the March quarter, following a 2.0% increase in the December quarter 2022. While hours worked increased, ABS data showed that labour productivity declined by 0.3%.
Filled jobs increased by 0.7%, with increases in both main jobs (up 0.5%) and secondary jobs (up 3.5%) in the March quarter. The growth in secondary jobs also meant their share of filled jobs rose to a record high of 7%.
The proportion of jobs that were vacant was 2.8%, down from the high of 3.2% in the September quarter 2022. It was still well above its pre-pandemic level of 1.6%.
“While the share of jobs that are vacant has fallen from the peak in the September quarter 2022, it is still much higher than before the pandemic (then 1.6%),” Jarvis said.
“This continues to highlight the difficulties that many employers are facing in filling vacancies.”