More People Moonlight, But What About The Net?

from the workin-for-the-weekend dept

A new article says more and more people are working second jobs these days, citing a three percent increase in the number of US workers with multiple jobs from 2001 to 2005. Ignoring the typical omission of any context for that statistic so you can determine if it's actually worthwhile, the reporter gives short thrift to the impact of technology in the area. The only reason that's really given as to why people are taking second jobs is that jobs increasingly require higher and higher education, so people without need to take on additional work to make ends meet. But the internet's also simply made it easier for people to add a second job or supplement their income, whether it's through something like blogging or by selling stuff on eBay or through another online merchant. While it's undoubtedly true that many people take multiple jobs because they have to, plenty of others are doing it on the net because they want to. It would be interesting to see some breakdown of the two, or at least something quantifying the impact of the internet.