Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising
The devil&#x27;s in the details.  Last week, my wife started doing DoorDash.  She&#x27;s loving it.  I accompanied her on one of the trips and <i>I</i> enjoyed it.  I thought, ya know, I like people, I enjoyed this a whole lot more than some of the other things I do for entertainment, I&#x27;d do this with free time occasionally.  Boom, second job.<p>But then, I look back on my history as a developer.  I&#x27;ve occasionally taken on some work.  I sell things on e-bay&#x2F;craigslist.  I&#x27;ve always sort-of had a second income source, mainly to pay for things I would just go without -- phone upgrades, an extra vacation, etc.<p>I don&#x27;t <i>need</i> it ... well, depending on how you look at the numbers, maybe I do, but is it all that strange?<p>I&#x27;m a bad example, though.  My wife has told practically everyone she knows and many of her friends&#x2F;family have decided to start doing it.  None <i>wanted</i> a second job, though some surely needed it.  None could take on a second <i>scheduled</i> or <i>full time</i> job but all had a few hours a week, a need for some extra cash, and found doing &quot;gig work&quot; to be a great fit.  Many of them are simply making idle time more productive for themselves and they&#x27;d have <i>never</i> gotten a second job if it these specific types of &quot;second jobs&quot; (frequently first[0]) didn&#x27;t exist.<p>[0] And I don&#x27;t mean that as a &quot;tragedy&quot;, either.  Though there are stories of people barely scraping by, there are areas where the pay is far higher than other unskilled jobs (and many skilled in my area).