Retailers’ Seasonal Hiring Hopes Find Relief From Rise in Second Job Seekers

With inflation rising, more Americans — including a number of white-collar workers — are seeking second jobs.

The Wall Street Journal noted this phenomenon in a report Monday (Nov. 7), pointing to figures from the Labor Department — ahead of Friday’s jobs report — showing 4.5 million Americans working part-time jobs as well as full-time jobs, a 6% increase year over year.

Meanwhile, staffing agencies interviewed by the WSJ say they're seeing an increase in white-collar professionals looking for part-time work. Jennifer Knippenberg, the chief recruiting officer of staffing firm Kelly Services Inc., told the newspaper that in years past, maybe 1% of white-collar workers were in the market for a second job. Now, that number has risen to one out of every 30 workers.

Recent earnings reports have reflected this trend as well. Last week, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said his company is seeing an increase in the number of people signing up to rent out their homes due to rising inflation, job cuts, and economic concerns.

“Just like during the Great Recession in 2008 when [Airbnb launched], people today are especially interested in earning extra income through hosting,” Chesky said, hinting at an event this month aimed at aggressively growing its current stable of 4 million hosts.

“As the economy slows down, I think people are looking for more ways to make either supplemental income or a greater yield on the assets they have,” he added, “so whether it’s second homes or primary homes, I think there is going to be a pretty big opportunity for us.”

Last week also saw Uber release its earnings, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi noting that more than 70% of its U.S. drivers “are saying that one of the considerations of their signing up to drive on Uber was inflation.”

The chief executive painted a picture during the company’s earnings call where drivers’ embrace of the platform “helps them afford their groceries, be more comfortable in an environment where real wages are fairly weak as it relates to the inflationary environment.”

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