Gen Z workers boosting wages through growing ‘poly-employment' trend
Gen Z workers are finally catching a break when it comes to landing a job and getting decent pay for it. But workplace experts say they are having to ditch the traditional 9-to-5 full-time job to do it.
Georgia Wright is working three jobs while she finishes her university degree. The 21-year-old is one of many young Aussies who are 'poly-employed', which means they work more than one casual or part-time job.
'My career is very much a portfolio career, rather than me getting my university degree and then finding a solid 9 to 5 situation,' she told Yahoo Finance.
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Wright works 20 hours per week as a marketing manager for a buyer's agency, where she is earning $37 an hour.
Her second job is tutoring high school students English and History, which she spends six hours a week on and is paid $30 an hour to do.
Her third job is another marketing gig, which takes up six hours a week and also earns her $37 an hour.Wright admitted it can be a 'bit of a struggle' to juggle her multiple jobs, along with her university work.
She is due to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in creative writing and minor in journalism this year.
While some young Aussies are picking up multiple jobs to help with the rising cost of living, Wright said she's doing it to help build her skills and help her get ahead in the future.
'What I've found personally is I've gotten my jobs based on my own experience,' she told Yahoo Finance.
'No one really asks about my degree. It's all about what I've done and accomplished already in other jobs.'
Wright currently lives at home with her parents and pays them $50 a week for groceries, while trying to save up for when she eventually moves out.
'It's when I'm dealing with life admin, car issues, doctor appointments, physio, that's when I feel like I'm putting all this money down the drain. That makes me stressed out,' she said.
'When I do move out, if I have these same issues, it won't be an easy fix. I'll have to really, really budget and I'll have to be working more. It won't be as easy as it is for me currently.'
Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson said it had been a 'tough job market' for Gen Z's but he is finally starting to see a shift with more younger workers getting hired and bringing in bigger wages.
He thinks this is partly due to the 'poly-employment trend'.
'Gen Z is at the front of the poly-employment trend, which means they are working multiple jobs to increase their income and gain diverse experiences,' Thompson told Yahoo Finance.
'There's a growing demand from both employers and workers for flexibility, and the rise of poly-employment reflects that.'
Employment Hero's latest SmartWatch report found there had been a trend towards Gen Z's picking up part-time and casual roles, with casual jobs seeing a 9.7 per cent year-on-year rise and part-time employment up 5.4 per cent.
'The hiring surge for Gen Z is accelerating and the median hourly rate for 18-24-year-olds has bumped up to $33.50,' Thompson said.
'The market is also favouring casual workers right now, which is good news for Gen Z jobseekers looking to try out multiple roles or improve their work-life balance.'
While poly-employment can give workers financial relief and flexibility, Thompson also highlighted the root causes of the trend being the high cost of living and job instability.
He said "structural changes" were needed from businesses and government to address this and promote job security, fairer wages and career growth opportunities.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics found there were one million multiple job-holders in December last year, with workers aged 20 to 24 the most likely to be working multiple jobs.
Shift-tracking company Deputy also found 22 per cent of shift workers in Australia had at least two part-time jobs, with 68 per cent choosing the same industry to gain extra employment.
Thompson said he expects the trend towards 'poly-employment' would continue this year ahead of an expected slowdown in hiring, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.1 per cent in February.
'We may see a broader slowdown in hiring across the labour market, with decelerating overall employment growth,' he said.
"Poly-employment ... will remain a key feature of their working life."
Wright said she planned to continue to work multiple jobs when she graduates from university this year and likes the diversity it brings.
"I'm not slogging away for the economy and for a paycheck. I'm finding enjoyment in these jobs and so it's easier for me to accept the hours," she said.Sign in to access your portfolio
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gen Z is facing the worst youth unemployment rate in decades. Here is how it's different
Graduation cap in hand, Sarah Chung is posing for photos in school regalia ahead of her convocation ceremony. The campus atmosphere is joyful, but what comes next is sobering: this honours student is graduating into one of the worst youth labour markets seen in decades. "It's bleak," said the 23-year-old graduate of the University of Calgary's media and communications program. She hasn't been able to find a job in her field and said she intends to pursue a master's degree. "I believe that it's tough just because of everything that's happening with the economy, with our society and with politics," she said. "There's a whole [lot] of talk about 'there's a recession coming.' I'm not an economist, but I can also see it as well." Chung is part of a generation facing Canada's highest youth unemployment rate in about a quarter-century. Apart from the pandemic, Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are facing the highest youth unemployment rate this country has seen since the mid-1990s, according to first quarter data from Statistics Canada. At that time, Jean Chrétien was Canada's prime minister, Gen Z was but a twinkle in their parents' eyes, and the global workforce had yet to be transformed by social media, gig work and artificial intelligence. Fast forward to 2025, and Canada's youngest workers are grappling with a perfect storm of economic conditions: an inflation crisis that came on the heels of a pandemic; a surge in population growth that has outpaced the number of available jobs; and now, a country teetering closer to recession as the U.S. trade war wreaks uncertainty on the economy. One expert says youth unemployment can be a "canary in the coal mine" that foreshadows broader troubles in the labour market. "It's kind of an early warning indicator," said Tricia Williams, director of research at Future Skills Centre, a Toronto Metropolitan University lab dedicated to studying the future of work. "It's not just about getting jobs and skills experience. It's about the larger structural supports and the environment that young people are coming into." Labour market whiplash The Canadian labour market has endured a kind of whiplash in recent years. After pandemic-era restrictions were lifted, companies celebrated with a hiring spree — the economy regained jobs it lost during the crisis and Canadian youth reaped the rewards of a summer job boom. But employers were soon struggling to find workers and fill postings, a result of the workforce having shrunk during the pandemic. The federal government and public policy experts prescribed higher immigration as an antidote to the shortage, which led to a rise in the Gen Z and millennial working population. Hiring sentiment "was really high coming out of the pandemic, which probably was never going to last," said Brendon Bernard, a senior economist at Indeed who closely follows youth labour market trends. As the hiring backlog cleared, other conditions started to slow the economy down, he added. The onset of a fierce inflation episode in mid-2021 triggered a domino effect: consumers pulled back on spending and the Bank of Canada began an aggressive interest rate hike cycle, leading businesses to delay hiring as economic confidence deteriorated. Older workers started working second jobs to pay the bills during the affordability crisis. Some experts suspect that the automation of routine tasks could be leading to fewer entry-level opportunities, but there isn't enough data to say how widespread this is. "As things have turned back and employer appetite has fallen back down to earth, the youth employment situation has weakened," said Bernard. 'It is disheartening' Youth unemployment started ticking back up in the spring of 2024. At the same time, the number of young people not in education, employment or training — an economic measure called the NEET rate — has risen among youth in their early 20s, mainly driven by non-students having trouble finding work. Bernard said there was some cautious optimism at the beginning of this year, when the labour market seemed to be stabilizing. But the Canadian economy has been rocked by U.S. trade war uncertainty since April, potentially stifling the hiring appetite as the overall unemployment rate rises. "It is disheartening," said Thivian Varnacumaaran, an electrical engineering student in his final year at York University who estimates that he's applied for 400 to 500 jobs — with no luck — since he started searching in December. "I wouldn't say I'm pessimistic, but I'm really realistic about the situation," the 25-year-old added. Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at trade association Alberta Central, says the economy is now "sluggish" even without having breached recession territory. He expects more signs of deterioration in the coming months, and noted that young people will likely bear the brunt of those conditions. "Often businesses do what I would call the 'last in, first out' type of strategy when they reduce headcount," said St-Arnaud. "The younger population that has been just hired are more at risk of being laid off in a downturn." WATCH | How the increase in temporary foreign workers is impacting job seekers: The scars of unemployment The bleak hiring landscape has some young people taking jobs just to stay ahead of the bills. "I spent two hours sweeping yesterday, and I have a mechanical engineering degree," said 24-year-old Ben Gooch of Dundas, Ont. The McMaster graduate is working part-time at a garden centre to cover some of his living expenses, having applied for upward of 100 jobs since December with only a handful of interviews to show for it. "I feel like I'm just throwing darts out at a wall and hoping to get lucky and hit something." Data shows that it's fairly common for young graduates to work in a job that only requires a high school diploma. But Canadian research has shown that being unemployed at a young age during a recession can lead to a persistent but non-permanent earnings loss for many years after — a well-studied phenomenon known as "wage scarring." Other research also suggests that entering the labour market during a recession can impact a person's health outcomes. "Where it can lead to scarring — I mean, we might think of it as sort of a temporary blemish — but it can have long term implications when the economy goes into a serious recession," said Miles Corak, an Ottawa-based economics professor at the City University of New York's Graduate Centre. LISTEN | What's driving high youth unemployment?: "Long-term earnings prospects are dampened for people graduating during the recession — not because they're not getting jobs, but eventually they fall into a part of the labour market that isn't as high-paying, in types of occupations that they didn't anticipate doing," said Corak. The economic downturns seen in Canada during the early 1980s and 1990s show the impact of that scarring. Youth unemployment reached a peak of 18.3 per cent in 1983, and rose again to 17.2 per cent in 1992 and 1993, with real wage declines observed among the 17 to 24 cohort in the years afterward. The lack of opportunities for young people aren't good for the rest of the country either, said Williams, the researcher. "Young people are a treasure of resource that we need to support and also yield dividends from," she said. Corak offers a different perspective. "I'm not so certain that it impacts the economy [so much] as the nature of our economy gets imprinted more clearly on younger people," he observed. Some young people, he noted, are doing very well and earning more than their parents did, while others are losing ground. "What we're seeing is many young people much more stressed, and running faster on a treadmill to stay still." Lately, Gooch has been reflecting on where his parents were at this stage of their lives. By the time they were in their mid-20s, they were working on their careers, owned real estate and were building a life together, he said. The young engineer hasn't given up on his search — he's applying for jobs across the country and abroad, both in and out of his field. He's accepted that he doesn't know what his circumstances will look like in a year. "I don't have a full time job yet, haven't started my career," he said. "I'm kind of waiting for life to start." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
5 hours ago
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Trump tariffs live updates: US, China agree on plan to ease trade tensions as US appeals court allows tariffs to remain in effect
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A federal appeals court held a decision saying his tariffs can temporarily stay in effect. The US Court of International Trade had blocked their implementation last month, deeming the method used to enact them "unlawful." Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet The latest twists and turns in Trump's trade policy come as the president pushes countries to speed up negotiations. The US sent a letter to partners as a "friendly reminder" that Trump's self-imposed 90-day pause on sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs is set to expire in early July. White House advisers have for weeks promised trade deals in the "not-too-distant future," with the only announced agreement so far coming with the United Kingdom. US and Indian officials held trade talks this week and agreed to extend those discussions on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the July 9 deadline. New tariffs are coming into play: Effective Wednesday, June 4, Trump doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%. 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It cited "supply constraints" in rare earth materials that are vital in making magnets and other components across a range of hi-tech industries. Read more here. Both the US and China are finding new tools to use as bargaining chips within trade negotiations. Here's an example of just some of them: Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. The de-escalation in trade tensions likely contributed to an improvement in US small-business confidence in May. However, uncertainty remained due to the overall economic outlook. Reuters reports: Read more here. Chinese stocks fell on Tuesday ahead of the second day of trade negotiations between the US and China. Investors are cautious as the two biggest economies seek to resolve some contentious issues. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. As US-China trade negotiations resume in London on Tuesday, both sides are eager to rebuild the truce established in May. 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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said it was "good meeting" and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the talks "fruitful," sending an upbeat signal on the talks' progress. The Chinese delegation, led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, did not comment on the talks. From Bloomberg: Read more here. The number of ocean containers from China bound for the US fell precipitously in May when President Trump's 145% tariffs on Chinese goods were in effect. Supply chain technology company Descartes said Monday that seaborne imports from China to the US dropped 28.5% year over year, the sharpest decline since the pandemic, per Reuters. Overall, US seaborne imports fell 7.2% annually in May to 2.18 million 20-foot equivalent units. The decline snaps a streak of increases fueled by companies frontloading goods to avoid higher duties, which has kept US seaports, such as the Port of Long Beach, busy. "The effects of U.S. policy shifts with China are now clearly visible in monthly trade flows," Descartes said in a statement. Read more here. In today's Chart of the Day, Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer writes that tariff headlines have been rattling markets to a lesser degree than they did in April, despite an escalation of trade tensions recently: Sign up for the Morning Brief newsletter to get the Chart of the Day in your inbox. US import costs of steel and aluminum are expected to rise by more than $100 billion after President Trump doubled tariffs on the metals to 50% this week. That is expected to impact automakers such as Ford (F), as well as importers for a variety of goods, from baseball bats to aircraft parts. The Financial Times reports: Read more here. Tariffs have brought challenges for many, but Century Aluminum (CENX) and top recycler Matalco stand to benefit from President Trump's metal import duties as domestic prices rise. Reuters reports: Read more here. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman reports: Read more here. US-China talks stretched on Tuesday, and they may continue into Wednesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters outside of Lancaster House in London, where delegations from both countries are meeting. "I think the talks are going really, really well," Lutnick said. "We're very much spending time and effort and energy — everybody's got their head down working closely." "I hope they end this evening," he added, "but if they need be, we'll be here tomorrow." The teams from China and the US, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, have been holding negotiations since Monday. The London summit followed a phone call between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Stocks rose to near session highs following Lutnick's comments on an otherwise fairly muted day in markets. Read more here. From Reuters: Read more here. Banking fees and trading revenue for one of the world's largest investment banks is expected to climb this quarter despite the concerns that surround US tariffs, Citigroup's (C) head of banking Vis Raghavan said on Tuesday. Raghaven added, that M&A activity continues to be active but the IPO market has been "stagnant." Reuters reports: Read more here. The World Bank cut its global growth forecast for 2025 on Tuesday by 0.4 percentage point to 2.3%. The international financial institution, which provides loans to governments said that high tariffs and uncertainty were a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies. Reuters reports: Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan reports: Read more here. On Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said trade negotiations with China were going well, as the two sides met in London for a second day of talks. Reuters reports: Read more here. The CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), North America's top producer of copper has warned that tariffs could hurt an industry that President Trump is trying to help. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Reuters reports: Maruti Suzuki has cut near-term production targets for its maiden electric vehicle e-Vitara by two-thirds because of rare earths shortages, a document showed, in the latest sign of disruption to the auto industry from China's export curbs. India's top carmaker, which said on Monday it had not seen any impact yet from the supply crisis, now plans to make about 8,200 e-Vitaras between April and September, versus an original goal of 26,500, according to a company document seen by Reuters. It cited "supply constraints" in rare earth materials that are vital in making magnets and other components across a range of hi-tech industries. Read more here. Both the US and China are finding new tools to use as bargaining chips within trade negotiations. Here's an example of just some of them: Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. The de-escalation in trade tensions likely contributed to an improvement in US small-business confidence in May. However, uncertainty remained due to the overall economic outlook. Reuters reports: Read more here. Chinese stocks fell on Tuesday ahead of the second day of trade negotiations between the US and China. Investors are cautious as the two biggest economies seek to resolve some contentious issues. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. As US-China trade negotiations resume in London on Tuesday, both sides are eager to rebuild the truce established in May. While, the US has tightened controls on AI chip exports, China may be holding the most valuable card in these talks. CNN reports: Read more here. Advertising firm, WPP said on Tuesday that global advertising revenue is expected to grow 6% this year, lowering its earlier target of 7.7% due to the uncertainty surrounding US trade policies. Reuters reports: Read more here. Bloomberg reported that trade talks between the US and China will resume tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in London after six hours of negotiations on Monday. US officials were looking for a "handshake" on Monday, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told CNBC, as the two sides look to ease tensions over tech and rare earths. President Trump weighed in on the progress, telling reporters on Monday: "We are doing well with China. China's not easy. ... I'm only getting good reports.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said it was "good meeting" and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the talks "fruitful," sending an upbeat signal on the talks' progress. The Chinese delegation, led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, did not comment on the talks. From Bloomberg: Read more here. The number of ocean containers from China bound for the US fell precipitously in May when President Trump's 145% tariffs on Chinese goods were in effect. Supply chain technology company Descartes said Monday that seaborne imports from China to the US dropped 28.5% year over year, the sharpest decline since the pandemic, per Reuters. Overall, US seaborne imports fell 7.2% annually in May to 2.18 million 20-foot equivalent units. The decline snaps a streak of increases fueled by companies frontloading goods to avoid higher duties, which has kept US seaports, such as the Port of Long Beach, busy. "The effects of U.S. policy shifts with China are now clearly visible in monthly trade flows," Descartes said in a statement. Read more here. In today's Chart of the Day, Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer writes that tariff headlines have been rattling markets to a lesser degree than they did in April, despite an escalation of trade tensions recently: Sign up for the Morning Brief newsletter to get the Chart of the Day in your inbox. US import costs of steel and aluminum are expected to rise by more than $100 billion after President Trump doubled tariffs on the metals to 50% this week. That is expected to impact automakers such as Ford (F), as well as importers for a variety of goods, from baseball bats to aircraft parts. The Financial Times reports: Read more here. Tariffs have brought challenges for many, but Century Aluminum (CENX) and top recycler Matalco stand to benefit from President Trump's metal import duties as domestic prices rise. Reuters reports: Read more here.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
ATO tax deduction to take advantage of before June 30: 'Better off'
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