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Inflation Forces Over Half of Americans to Consider Second Jobs

As real wages fall and inflation remains red hot, employees across the income spectrum take on extra shifts, side hustles or second jobs to ease the pain.

A worker delivers packages in San Francisco, California.

A worker delivers packages in San Francisco, California.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Over half of working Americans have considered holding multiple jobs to pay their living expenses as inflation remained stubbornly high in September and real wages fell.

About 38% of workers have looked for a second job, while an additional 14% have plans to do so, according to a survey of more than 1,000 full-time US employees by Qualtrics International Inc., which makes software used by over 16,000 organizations. At the same time, 18% of working adults said they had moved to an area with a lower cost of living to cut expenses, and another 13% plan to do so.