Moonlighting: An Analysis of Multiple Jobholding

ABSTRACT This analysis examines the prevalence of multiple jobholding, or moonlighting, for a cohort of relatively young workers over the past 20 years in the U.S. using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data. The NLSY identifies every job held during each week over the period from 1999 to 2020. I compare those measures of multiple jobholding with the moonlighting experiences of an older cohort of NLSY workers in the U.S. who were born approximately a generation—20 years—earlier. The analysis explores the portion of the difference in the prevalence in multiple jobholding between the two cohorts due to demographic characteristics, educational attainment, and marital status over time.