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Tag: multiple jobs

  • Cantor: Long Island consumer sentiment drops amid rising household debt in 2025 | Long Island Business News

    While 2025 ended with a 4.4% growth in gross domestic product, fueled by low unemployment, strong consumer and government spending, and business investment, the view of that positive economic news looks much different from many of America’s kitchen tables.

    While unemployment is at the federal reserve (Fed) target of 4.4%, job openings continue to fall to 6.5 million, with hires and separations remaining constant at 5.3 million, both continuing to fall in the post-pandemic economy. In this slowing labor market, Americans—who are in part-time jobs trying to make ends meet—are preferring to access those full-time job openings at their highest levels in eight years. The signs of financial stress are everywhere. With 5.7% of the workforce having multiple jobs—the highest level in 25 years—followed by 9.3 million Americans who in November 2025 worked more than one job (a 10% increase from a year earlier), and ending with Americans having two full-time jobs (increasing by 18% during 2025). Aside from working more, American household debt—including record -high credit card debt—is increasing to fill the financial void that a job alone won’t.

    In a just-released household debt survey, WalletHub found that 47% of American households can’t handle more debt, 33% expect their household debt to increase during the next 12 months, 45% feel that credit cards own them and 55% believe that they will die with debt. Of the 46% of Americans in debt, 53% are struggling with credit cards, 20% with mortgages, and 11% with student loans. If the financial health of America’s households is not daunting, 44% of respondents said that they think household debt is affecting their health.

    With the top 10% of Americans—those earning $275,000 or more—accounting for 45% of all spending, and with the top 20% increasing their spending by 20% since 2020, it matters how confident in the economy the other 80% are, including those struggling with household debt. Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and for Long Islanders who can’t escape their financial struggles, this is their new reality.

    This reality was illustrated in recent a survey from the Siena Research Institute, which found that its Long Island Index of Consumer Sentiment for Nassau and Suffolk County dropped to 63.4 in November, the lowest since 61.2 in June 2023, and nearly 15% lower than the 72.9 in November 2024. Results below 76 indicate that those consumers who are pessimistic about their financial future are greater than those who are optimistic This is troubling because consumerism is 70% of all economic activity, and because of that outsized impact it matters for the regional economy how Long Islanders feel about their household finances and financial future.

    With 70% of Long Islanders indicating that the rising costs of groceries, rents, and home energy were seriously impacting their finances, the pessimism that Long Islanders feel about their financial future is unmistakable. The concern for Long Island‘s small businesses is that pessimistic consumers are reluctant to spend.

    No doubt that rising costs and increasing household debt has resulted in a widening gap between those who have persevered during the past five years and those who have struggled. This imbalance may be with us for foreseeable future proving that all economics is local.

    Martin Cantor is director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy and former Suffolk County economic development commissioner. He can be reached at [email protected].


    Opinion

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  • If Your Employees Are Taking On Second Jobs, Here’s How to Handle It

    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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  • Why Employees Get Away With Secretly Working Multiple Jobs

    A growing number of employees – up to 5 percent of the tech workforce – are secretly working at two jobs, or three or more. Some of it is side hustle, sure, but an ever-increasing number of these folks are working two or more full-time jobs for two or more companies. 

    And it’s becoming harder to keep it a secret.

    I imagine their workday looks a lot like that cliche sitcom storyline when the protagonist accidentally schedules two dates with two different romantic interests on the same night at the same location. For what it’s worth, The Office did it the best in “Casino Night.”

    It invites the question: How long can you keep that up? If television has taught us anything, it’s that this scheme always ends in sadness for everyone involved.

    The thing is, CEOs and HR departments have sensed the overemployment trend for years, but they have a very hard time sniffing it out, even when it’s taking place right under their noses. I’ve witnessed it in my own companies, and I like to think I’m the kind of leader who is down with the kids and their K-Pop.

    But in larger megacaps, where every employee is a number and their productivity is a tiny percentage notch in a chart, well, a lot of the time leadership doesn’t even know their names, let alone how many jobs they might be working. And middle management just wants to make sure those employees are getting more notches of productivity out of AI.

    Well, they’re productive with AI all right. That’s actually part of the problem. In fact, the company might even be employing one of their AI agents. And that scares the holy hell out of them. 

    “We didn’t figure out ‘Jared’ was an AI until we went to his desk and discovered that he was two pillows stuffed into an overcoat. We just thought he had a thing for floppy hats.”

    Look, I’m not here to out anyone. I’m not here to judge. I’m not here to fix the glitch.

    I’m just going to tell you the real reason why tech employees have multiple secret jobs.

    It’s the Money. Or Is It?

    The first and most obvious answer to any question like this is money. Always.

    But like any obvious answer, it’s never that simple.

    In this latest incarnation of the overemployment trend, the motivation might just be revenge. In fact, I believe it’s more like a pre-emptive strike against the treachery that lies ahead in a career in tech.

    Now, this article from Fortune points to a Reddit community (shocker!) to which a lot of these folks come to get advice, talk leads, and discuss the tactical steps for getting away with working two or more jobs at once.  

    And let’s not dive into clickbait. A lot of these jobs are being held down by legit independent contractors who are up-front about their free agency. But I’ll remind you that the concept of job is evolving, mostly because employers throttled loyalty to near zero, meaning pretty much all jobs can be considered contract jobs now.

    A few years into the loyalty mess, we find the more ambitious among the tech talent making these pre-emptive strikes. Why put all your income eggs into one basket when your boss can light that basket on fire and replace you with a chatbot on a whim, then brag about their strategic productivity and efficiency gains to the board and in the press?

    Nah, it’s not just the money. It’s about getting their bag while they can. And when that’s the endgame, the means aren’t always … shall we say, ethical? 

    Use AI to Lie, Cheat, and Steal

    My “favorite” line from the that Fortune article:

    “Interviews should be gamified. Lie, cheat, and steal. Use AI. Tech interviews are 80 percent an opportunity for some blowhard at the company to impress their skill on you. With AI, the walls of tech are coming down.” 

    The gall. The audacity. The sheer … bleeping … hubris. Where did these kids pick up this kind of behavior?

    “From you, Dad, all right? I learned it by watching you!”

    Yeah, I’ve used that joke before, but it works so well in this instance.

    Leadership and management dropped ChatGPT on every desk and tacitly told employees to figure out how to use AI to work themselves out of a job. This went one of three ways:

    1. The technically illiterate and fearful poked around fearfully until their productivity went to zero. Seeya!
    2. The go-along-to-get-along crowd literally made shit up and performed AI productivity theater. Some got caught. Most didn’t. They’re still winning little fake AI productivity Oscars.
    3. Some of the people who actually know tech started figuring out how to use AI to apply for, interview for, and even work additional jobs while also using AI to look hyper-productive for their current employer, who mandated they use AI. 

    I mean, I’m an original AI platform inventor from 15 years ago, and when I got a hold of these new tools in the 2020s, the first thing I did was write scripts and hook them to chatbots to automate any stupid, mindless thing I had to do more than twice in a day.

    How many stupid, mindless things does your average corporate employee do in a day?

    I mean you put the candy right there in front of them and told them not to touch it.

    So 95 percent of these workers were loyal and obedient, but 5 percent of them are working for someone else while they’re working for you, and filling their bags.

    Here’s why that 5 percent is about to go way up.

    We’re All Contractors Now

    This is what happens when you tell workers they’re disposable.

    First, they get mad about it. 

    Then, they start acting like it.

    Then they get good at it.

    And that’s where we are right now: “How do I get my bag before they fire me?”

    They will get fired. I mean, Michael Scott wound up alone at the end of the night (or did he?). Plus, it’s straight-up unethical. It’s a form of theft, according to every CEO it’s ever happened to. But that doesn’t bother the multi-jobbers. They’re expecting to be fired at some point. It’s the very reason why they’re setting up these little insurance policies in the first place.

    There are, according to the Fortune article, 430,000 of them on Reddit and, also in that article, it’s clear that firing them doesn’t even stop them from doing it. They’re throwing around figures like $500K working three to five jobs at a time. Lose one. Get another.

    If that last sentence didn’t trigger a little explosion in your brain – hey, maybe you should think about a second job, you know, just on the side or whatever – then you’re not human. And even if you have zero empathy, I’d ask you to at least consider human nature, and why this is all happening in the first place.

    Join the rebel alliance of over 10K tech professionals on my email list. You keep living the dream, I’ll keep making the jokes.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    Joe Procopio

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