Long-Run Career Outcomes of Multiple Job Holding

Multiple job holding (MJH) is increasingly frequent in industrialized countries. Individuals holding a secondary job add to their experience, skills, and networks. The authors study the long-run labor market outcomes after MJH and investigate whether career effects can be validated. They employ high-quality administrative data from Germany. A doubly robust estimation method combines entropy balancing with fixed-effects difference-in-differences regressions. Findings show that income from primary employment declines after MJH spells and overall annual earnings from all jobs increase briefly. Job mobility increases after times of MJH. Interestingly, the beneficial long-term effects of MJH are largest for disadvantaged groups in the labor market, such as females, those with low earnings, and/or low education. Overall, the authors find only limited benefits of MJH.