5 days ago
Don't Call It a Side Hustle. These Americans Are ‘Polyworking.'
For a growing number of Americans, juggling more than one job, or 'polyworking,' has become just another day at the office.
The number of people with multiple full- or part-time jobs climbed to over 8.9 million in March for the first time since 1994, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the phenomenon, before ticking down slightly in April.
As a practice, it's not so new. Think 'moonlighting.'
But as a term, polyworking (and the similar 'polyemployment') is more recent. It began cropping up in human resources research and in traditional and social media after the Covid-19 pandemic as an upbeat spin on millennial workers' reputation for taking on side hustles, trying to monetize hobbies and eschewing 9-to-5 work.
How it's pronounced
'It's a way to take back ownership of work and one's career in a meaningful way, pushing back against the sense that you are identified by one job, one employer,' said Erin Hatton, a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies the labor market.
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