THE WORK-LIFE strongBALANCEstrong AND MULTIPLE JOB HOLDING IMPLICATIONS.pdfVIP

THE WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND MULTIPLE JOB HOLDING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY Wayne McClintock Social Scientist Taylor Baines and Associates Nick Taylor Principal Taylor Baines and Associates Jamie Newell Principal Monitoring and Evaluation Research Associates Paper presented at The Social Policy, Research and Evaluation (SPRE) Conference, Wellington, 3-5 April 2007 Abstract Multiple job holding is a significant feature of the contemporary New Zealand labour market, with at least one in ten people actively involved in the workforce holding more than one job at a time. Research examined how multiple job holding affects the lives of workers in six sectors of the economy and reveals that there can be considerable impact on their work-life balance. Based on 360 in-depth interviews with women and men employed in the agricultural, health, café and restaurant, accounting, accommodation and creative sectors, the research shows that multiple job holding is comparatively well established in five of these sectors, with multiple job holders often expecting to remain as such for the medium to long term. For café and restaurant workers, however, multiple job holding is a more transitional phase of their career pathway as many of them only intend to continue this employment strategy over the short term. Multiple job holders, who on average worked 9.5 more hours than non multiple job holders in 1981 and 7 more hours in 2001, are motivated by