The project Moonlighting: understanding the quality and consequences of working multiple jobs is a transdisciplinary and multi-method study of the quality of work and wellbeing of contemporary multiple jobholders

The project Moonlighting: understanding the quality and consequences of working multiple jobs is a transdisciplinary and multi-method study of the quality of work and wellbeing of contemporary multiple jobholders.

The project is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for the period 2024-2029.

UNDERSTANDING THE QUALITY AND CONSEQUENCES OF WORKING MULTIPLE JOBS

Working in the new economy is increasingly of a flexible and fragmented nature. Multiple jobholders [MJHs], or so-called moonlighters, can be considered emblematic of how work fragmentation and combinations affect the quality of work and total worker wellbeing. MOONLIGHT researches the quality of work in first, second and other jobs and how this translates into total worker wellbeing. We study MJHs through comparative research in seven advanced economies: Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States – countries with increasing levels of MJHs, but different welfare state traditions, regulations and norms. The research relies on new comparative cross-national and dynamic data. A unique and crucial feature of the programme’s empirical approach is the development of an app for dynamic quality and wellbeing assessment.

The study is conducted in several phases of primary data collection. In the initial phase, a comparative cross-national survey is carried out to examine the quality of work in primary, secondary, and additional jobs in relation to overall worker wellbeing, as well as the influence of meso and macro contexts. Following this, the research team collaborates with an app developer to create an application for dynamic prevalence and quality assessment. Through this app, respondents provide regular updates about their work over the course of a year. A group of participants is recruited to engage in this longitudinal, dynamic app-based research using their mobile phones, accessible on both iOS and Android via a web application. This method offers deeper insights into the fluctuations in work quality and wellbeing over time. In the final phase, insights gained are incorporated into the (repeated) survey research.

From this perspective, the MOONLIGHT project aims to introduce an interpretative framework for quality and total worker wellbeing and to understand the consequences of working multiple jobs.

The project is carried out by the Principal Investigator, one post-doctoral researcher, two PhD-students and three research assistants based at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies – Hugo Sinzheimer Institute (AIAS-HSI) of the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands).


0%
More than 40% no longer works
multiple jobs after a few years
0 M
In Germany alone, around 2 million workers
have a second job
0%
Official MJH levels are up to 10% of the national workfoces in several EU countries