Time to read : 3 Minutes
Is The Side Hustle Here To Stay
The combination of the highest inflation in 21 years (it's currently at 6.1% ) with soaring interest rates is hitting Australians hard so it's no surprise to see more of us working multiple jobs.
👷 The latest stats from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says there's 857,900 of us working two or more jobs right now.
🔺 That's 50,000 more of us than this time last year and around 180,000 more second job holders than there were five years ago.
Second jobs: what you need to know
People take on multiple jobs for different reasons. Some need the extra income, while others are changing careers or starting small businesses following the pandemic.
There was a 7% increase in new businesses registered in 2021-22 with over 140,000 of these classified as "non-employing" - that's businesses with just one person involved.
The Great Resignation is real. During the second year of the pandemic, 1.3m people changed jobs in Australia.
There's around 250,000 "gig economy" workers in Australia working across industries from food couriers to copywriting.
This doesn't include other income sources such as renting out homes on Airbnb or selling unwanted goods. Gumtree estimates the secondhand economy is worth $48bn in Australia.
Be aware: There are tax implications for all income that you make. As Australia's workers increasingly head online, the easier it is for The Australian Tax Office (ATO) to trace it.
The bottom line
Whether it's side hustles or switching careers, the nature of how we earn a living in Australia is shifting and that has implications for everything from our superannuation to home loans.
And remember that the ATO is watching.
We'll leave the final word here with the ATO's Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh:
“We know lots of people have picked up a side hustle during the pandemic... We receive income information from a range of providers including financial institutions, online marketplaces, ride-sourcing applications and short-term rental websites. The data we receive is growing, which means the places to hide are shrinking."
