WHO'S WORKING TWO JOBS? College grads moonlight a lot Moonlighting isn't just for lunch-bucket-luggers who need to work extra jobs to make ends meet. Far from it, according to a study in the Labor Dept.'s Monthly Labor Review. Multiple jobholding actually gets more and more common as you move up the education scale, from high school dropouts (3.3%) to PhDs (9.4%). The only major exception to the pattern is people with professional degrees, such as lawyers and physicians. Their rate, 6.5% in 1995, was just above that of high school graduates. The people with more education probably work extra jobs because their schedule allows it, because their expertise is in demand, or because of financial reasons beyond meeting basic living expenses and paying off debts, says the study's author, Thomas Amirault, who recently left his job as a Labor Dept. economist to enter the private sector. Example: a programmer who designs Web sites at night. Of course, not all of those brainy moonlighters are rich. Some, undoubtedly, are adjunct professors who drive taxis at night. Cutting the data another way--by income level rather than education--shows that the rate of multiple jobholding does decline as income rises. But the difference is slight--from 6.4% in the lowest-income fifth of the population to 5.9% in the highest. By Peter Coy RELATED ITEMS CHART: Well-Educated Moonlighters

Updated Aug. 28, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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