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November, 1986, Vol. 109, No.
11
Moonlighting by women
jumped to record highs
According to a survey conducted in May 1985, multiple jobholders totaled 5.7 million, 5.4 percent of all employed workers. This was up from 4.9 percent in 1980 and was the highest level in more than 20 years. Data from the same survey confirm the continuance of two long-term trends: an increasing number of women among the moonlighters and a decline in the proportion of multiple jobholders with at least one job in agriculture.
These findings are from a special survey of work patterns of American workers.1 Multiple jobholders, as identified in this survey, are those employed persons who, during the survey reference week, either (1) had jobs as wage or salary workers with two employers or more; (2) were self-employed and also held a wage and salary job; or (3) were unpaid family workers on their primary jobs but also held wage and salary jobs.2 The primary job is the one at which the greatest number of hours were worked.
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1 The data were obtained through special questions asked in conjunction with the May 1985 Current Population Survey (CPS), the monthly survey of about 59,500 households which provides the basic labor force and unemployment data for the Nation. Data on multiple jobholders used to be collected each May in a supplement to the CPS until the supplement was ended after 1980. For the most recently published report on multiple jobholders, see Daniel E. Taylor and Edward S. Sekscenski, "Workers on long schedules, single and multiple jobholders," Monthly Labor Review, May 1982, pp. 47-53.
2 Also included as multiple jobholders are a small number of persons who had two jobs because they changed jobs during the survey week. Persons employed only in private households (such as housekeepers, launderers, gardeners, babysitters, and so forth) who worked for two employers or more during the survey week, are not counted as multiple jobholders because working for several employers is considered an inherent characteristic of private household work rather than an indication of multiple jobholding. Also excluded are self-employed persons with additional farms or businesses and persons with secondary jobs as unpaid family workers.
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Developments in women's labor force participation.—Sept. 1997.
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