When one job, one pay isn’t enough

More people are turning to second jobs to make ends meet as the economy falls behind but the bills keep arriving right on schedule.

The growing unemployment rate has left many jobless, but the economic downturn has also forced some to take on second jobs for supplemental income.

A CareerBuilder.com job survey indicated that many Americans were either already working two jobs or thinking about it.

Roughly 10 percent of the more than 6,100 workers contacted for a fourth-quarter forecast said they are working second jobs, with 24 percent saying that they are considering doing so, said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.com.

“Clearly there are people looking for a supplemental income,” she said.

Ms. Haefner said that seasonal hiring contributed in part to these figures, as more retailers are looking to hire part-time or additional full-time help during the holidays.

She said that although the amount of traffic on the Career Builder site has not dramatically increased in recent months, people are looking for different kinds of jobs. More job seekers are including the words “retail,” “part time” and “evenings” in their search terms.

However, this holiday season, the supply of jobs is not keeping up with workers’ demand for extra income.

This year, October hiring was at its lowest since 1991 and 19 percent lower than 2007, the weakest holiday hiring season since 2001, according to data compiled by Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based consulting firm.

In the retail industry, like most sectors, Ms. Haefner said, “Definitely hiring has slowed down.”

For Tina Owens, the lapse in hiring nationwide is a reality. The 56-year-old Fairfax-resident works part-time at her church’s nursery and had a job at a small financial-planning firm. Her job at the firm ended Sept. 30, leaving her searching for another source of income, or as she puts it, “Submitting applications into the black hole of the computer.”

She began working at the firm after her husband died in 2006, leaving her with a house and bills, and she did not want to burn through the money she and her husband had set aside for retirement. “I was trying to fill in the gaps,” she said.

Ms. Owens said she has noticed the problems in the economy more because she is alone. “It’s just doom and gloom every single day,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anxiety like this.”

Although she does not have a degree, Ms. Owens completed three years of college and amassed credits in several disciplines as she kept changing her major. However, she found that a degree in the current job market is more important than it was 40 years ago when she started working.

“So many jobs want a degree. They won’t even look at your resume,” she said.

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