Taking a second job is nothing particularly new, but having to take on extra duties when you’re already working a full time role is no easy task. Yet that’s exactly what three in 10 of the full-time workers surveyed by Seattle-based Resume Templates said they planned to do this year to help cover the extra expenses that the holiday season brings (perhaps worsened this year by tariffs and inflation). And over a third of workers already working full-time said that they’re already working other gigs to earn extra income.
In essence, this means a majority of the 1,000 full-time workers in the survey were concerned enough about living costs at the end of 2025 that they’re taking on extra work.
Of these people, about half are raising more money by taking on extra hours at their existing employer. Other workers have taken on work at delivery services, joined ride-share companies, taken up seasonal jobs in stores, or were freelancing HRDive notes. Others took traditional “pocket money” roles like pet sitting and babysitting, while others tried earning income from social media.
The report notes that more people say it’s going to be harder to afford holiday expenses this year than last year, with some 61 percent feeling this way, and about a third of people are planning to spend less on gifts, holiday decorations and travel this year than in 2024. About three in 10 people say that the loss of government benefits like SNAP or assistance with insurance are partly to blame for their financial issues.
So far you may be thinking that this data merely supports evidence that the economy and the job market are in trouble, but that there’s not much relevance for your company. But there’s one piece of data in the report that will give you concern: over a third of people taking on more work, 39 percent in fact, say that this necessity already has or probably will damage their productivity on their existing full time role. While this makes sense (everybody only has so much energy and time to give, and a full time job is already demanding) this has immediate knock-on effects for their employers who could see a trickle-down impact on the company productivity and profitability.
In the report Julia Toothacre, chief career strategist at Resume Templates, writes that workers who take on extra duties “need to stay mindful of their energy and mental health” because “overworking can quickly lead to burnout, fatigue, and declining performance in both their main job and side work.” Toothacre also suggests that workers may need to scale back productivity to “a sustainable level,” and that “doing ‘enough’ to meet expectations, rather than constantly overperforming, might be the healthiest choice.” This advice, while sensible from an overworked, underpaid frontline employee point of view is clearly not going to please employers who may be relying on their workers being fired up and ready to tackle, say, a busy retail season.
Earlier this year a report said that a growing share of the workforce was “secretly” working second jobs, with perhaps up to 5 percent of the tech workforce pulling off this feat. The new report, meanwhile, backs up a study from June this year that said a similar shockingly high percentage of workers were going to seek additional duties to make ends meet — with economic woes tied to uncertainty, uncommunicative employers, and unhappiness in the workplace playing a role.
What can you do about this in your company?
It depends on your official stance on second jobs: banning workers from taking on extra work means that if they find themselves forced into an economic corner because the income they earn from you isn’t enough, they may simply quit for better paying roles elsewhere. If you tolerate workers taking on second roles, then a savvy leader may boost opportunities like flexible working schedules: the data suggests that workers are going to be taking on second jobs anyway, so if you’re their primary employer doing the most you can to ensure they’re not burned out seems smart, since it may protect their productivity.
Kit Eaton
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