Further, amid much speculation about the reasons behind the trend, it seems to have taken economists and statisticians by surprise. During 1995 and 2013 – a timeframe that included the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and housing prices that have mushroomed around of the country – the percentage of individuals holding more than one job dropped from 6.8% to 5%; or from 7.5 million moonlighters to 6.8 million over roughly the same period.
Concurrently, it should be noted, the number of Americans who had jobs at all dropped by nearly 16 million. Most interesting, the downward trend is consistent across socioeconomic and educational bandwidths among the working-age population. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that the number of part-time employees rose during that same time, although the study found that even full-timers moonlight less often now than they did during the 1990’s.
The statisticians highlight that workers are relying more on alternative sources of income to pay their bills or take down their debt, but haven’t pinpointed what those sources are. With further research, more will almost surely be revealed.