Secondary Jobs and Multiple Job Holders in the Labour Account

The Australian Labour Account provides a comprehensive picture of employment and jobs in the Australian labour market by presenting information on secondary jobs, in addition to main jobs. Commencing with the June quarter 2019 release, multiple job holders data will be published in the Persons quadrant of the Labour Account, to provide quarterly information about the people who are working in secondary jobs.

In the June quarter 2019 there were 940,000 secondary jobs held by 786,000 multiple job holders, in seasonally adjusted terms. The higher number of secondary jobs, compared to multiple job holders, reflects some multiple job holders with three or more jobs at the same time.

Secondary jobs

The Labour Account considers any job held by an employed person, other than their main job, to be a secondary job. While aggregate information on the number of secondary jobs is sourced from underlying data from Labour Force, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6202.0), the Labour Force Survey does not record the industry of secondary jobs. The industry distribution of secondary jobs used in the Labour Account is calculated using data from the ABS Linked Employer Employee Dataset (LEED), the data source for Jobs in Australia (ABS cat. no. 6160.0).

The published secondary jobs data in the Labour Account for any given industry identifies the number of jobs in the industry that were worked as secondary jobs (as distinct from the main jobs). Over the past nine years, there have been considerably more secondary jobs in the ‘services industries’ than the ‘goods industries’. This partly reflects the number of secondary jobs in the Administrative and support services, Health care and social assistance and Education and training industries.

Figure 1: Secondary Jobs by Industry groups (Seasonally Adjusted)


Source: Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat: 6150.0.55.003)

The published ‘Proportion of secondary jobs’ is measured as the number of secondary jobs as a proportion of filled jobs.

Proportion of secondary jobs = ()

The proportion of secondary jobs in the June quarter 2019 was 6.6% compared to 6.3% in September 2010, in seasonally adjusted terms.

The proportion of secondary jobs data shows that a 22.1% of filled jobs in the Administrative and support services industry were secondary jobs in June 2019. Interestingly, while the number of secondary jobs held in Health care and social assistance and Education and training industries were closely aligned, the proportion of secondary jobs for the Education and training industry was almost double the proportion of secondary jobs for Health care and social assistance.

Figure 2: Proportion of secondary jobs (Seasonally Adjusted)


Source: Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat: 6150.0.55.003)

Multiple job holders

The recently published multiple job holders data in the Labour Account provides an insight into the number of employed persons in a given industry who work in more than one job. Similar to secondary jobs, multiple job holders are also derived using data from the Labour Force Survey. The industry distribution for multiple job holders is based on data from the Linked Employer Employee Dataset (LEED).

Figure 3: Multiple Job holders by Industry groups (Seasonally Adjusted)

Source: Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat: 6150.0.55.003)

Consistent with secondary jobs, the number of multiple job holders in the services industries outweighs the goods industries, with gap increasing over time. The largest contribution to multiple job holding in the services industries comes from Health care and social assistance, with 132,000 multiple job holders in June 2019. This was followed by the Education and training, Accommodation and food services and Retail trade industries.

Multiple job holder and holding measures

To supplement multiple job holders data, the Labour Account publishes two other labour market measures- the Ratio of multiple job holders and the Rate of multiple job holding.

Ratio of multiple job holders = ()

Rate of multiple job holding = ()

The ratio of multiple job holders in the June quarter 2019 was 5.9% compared to 5.7% in September 2010, in seasonally adjusted terms. Similarly, the rate of multiple job holding in the June quarter 2019 was 5.9% compared to 5.7% in September 2010.

The ratio of multiple job holders, which is calculated as the proportion of main job holders, indicates that 7.4% of people whose main job was in Health care and social assistance worked in more than one job during June 2019. While Health care and social assistance had the most multiple job holders, the ratio of multiple job holders was highest in the Arts and recreation services (9.1%) and Administrative and support services (8.7%) industries.

Figure 4: Ratio of multiple job holders (proportion of main job holders) (%), selected industries (Seasonally Adjusted)


Source: Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat: 6150.0.55.003)

The rate of multiple job holding compares multiple job holders and all employed persons. This data showed that 8.3% of all people employed in Arts and recreation services and 7.1% of people employed in Health care and social assistance in the June quarter 2019 were multiple job holders. In contrast to the higher ratio of multiple job holders, 6.9% of all people employed in the Administrative and support services industry were multiple job holders at that time.

Figure 5: Rate of multiple job holding (proportion of employed persons) (%), selected industries (Seasonally Adjusted)


Source: Labour Account Australia, Quarterly Experimental Estimates (cat: 6150.0.55.003)

Other information on multiple job holders and multiple job holding

A complementary article in Jobs in Australia (cat. no. 6160.0), shows that for both males and females, multiple job holding rates were highest for those aged 18-20 years. Median duration of multiple job holding was 22 weeks, with 46.9% of the second concurrent jobs held for the entire year. See Multiple Job holders in Australia for a more in-depth explanation and analysis of multiple job holders based on gender, age, income and duration of multiple job holding.

Understanding Labour Account data relative to other labour statistics

The Labour Account is the best source of headline information on employment by industry. It provides an estimate of the number of main jobs, secondary jobs and multiple job holders. Secondary jobs data supplements information on jobs count, while multiple job holders data provide insight into persons holding multiple jobs.