Poly-employment rises amid cost-of-living pressures
One in three Australians is now juggling multiple jobs in order to stay afloat amid the surging costs of living, according to a new report.
Employment Hero's latest Annual Jobs report revealed that poly-employment is now the norm for many countries across the world, including Australia.
It found that 34% of Aussies are working more than one job to make ends meet, figures that are close to Canada (36%) and neighbouring New Zealand (33%).
The figures in Australia, however, rise to 56% when specifically looking at younger workers aged between 18 and 24 years old.
The findings come as the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveal that there are 948,000 multiple job holders, or 6.4% of all employed people, across the country as of June 2025.
Citing the International Labour Organisation, the Employment Hero report pointed out that "non-standard work is becoming a defining feature of modern labour markets."
"For employers, that means confronting a new reality: the multi-job worker may soon be the norm, not the exception," it said.
Impact of cost-of-living pressures
It attributed the situation to the cost-of-living pressures hitting Australians, citing the case of 34-year-old Liam, who works as an instructional designer for a bank while tutoring school students and developing training guides for music classes.
"There's just no way we can afford the life we want in Sydney without extra income," Liam said in the report.
Ben Thompson, co-founder and CEO of Employment Hero, described the findings as "big news."
"The causes will be multipronged; it's a signal people are making big personal trade-offs to cope with the cost of living," Thompson said in a statement.
"Also, it's a result of the trend towards casualisation of the workforce we've seen over the past twelve months, with average hours worked slowing as employers adapt to the rising cost of operations."
