New ABS and Deputy data show record poly-employment, prompting a warning on managing conflict-of-interest risk
Australia's side hustle economy has hit a new high. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported on 11 September that 1.0 million people held more than one job in the June 2026 quarter – 6.9 per cent of all employed Australians and the highest multiple job-holding rate on record.
Released alongside fresh scheduling data from workforce platform Deputy, the figures confirm what many HR leaders already suspect: secondary income has moved from the margins into the mainstream of Australian working life, and it is reshaping how employers roster, retain and manage risk.
According to the ABS, women are considerably more likely than men to hold multiple jobs – 7.7 per cent of employed women compared with 6.2 per cent of employed men – and workers aged 20 to 24 have the highest rate of any age group, at 11.2 per cent.
The multiple job-holding rate sat between 5.0 and 6.0 per cent for most of the period from 1994 to 2019, before falling sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic and then climbing to today's record level, where it has stayed at or above 6.4 per cent since June 2022.
Administrative and support services recorded the highest rate of multiple job-holding by industry, at 9.8 per cent, while electricity, gas, water and waste services recorded the lowest, at 3.4 per cent. Separately, Westpac research released in November 2025 found that 55 per cent of Australians...
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