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More Australians are taking up a side hustle or working multiple jobs to get by as cost-of-living pressures surge.
Trained chef Nikki Fashion found herself in a dire financial situation at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic which sparked her to search for a secondary income.
Looking at ways to supplement her pay, she went to the online jobs marketplace Airtasker with a knack for organising that turned out to be a money-making side hustle.
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"I'm a tiny bit OCD and I thought, well, I'm very good at organising, so maybe I'll just try that," she said.
Within a couple of weeks, she already had a two-week waiting list from people wanting help to organise and de-clutter their homes.
A year on, it's thriving alongside her catering business.
"It's a side hustle. It's something to get me from below the bread line because it's difficult these days," Fashion said.
"Everything's so expensive."
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The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that, in the March quarter, 857,000 Australians held more than one job.
This is up from 674,000 five years ago which is a jump of more than 27 per cent.
Around 100,000 people are working more than two jobs.
"The cost of living has certainly been increasing but, at the same time, wages have not been," Greg Jericho from the Centre for Future Work said.
"People basically need to work more than one job just to get by. Very few people actually work multiple jobs just because they like working."
With the rise of the side hustle due to cost of living pressures, Airtasker has launched a "Side Hustle Calculator" which estimates earnings across 40 industries from couriers and gardeners to cleaning and entertainment.
"I think people are going to be really surprised about how much they can earn with a side hustle," Airtasker chief executive Tim Fung said.
"But I think people are also going to be surprised by what type of skills are actually in demand."
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The calculator shows concreters can earn an average of $1300 per job, for fence construction it could be $1000 per job.
Meanwhile, painting is nearly $700 per job and for business admin experts, $650 per job.
The rise of the side hustle or odd jobs also could benefit the chronic labour shortages Australia is facing.
"Most of these jobs are sort of part-time, short hours and so, as a result, they are going to be mostly done by people who are already working somewhere else," Jericho said.
Source: 9News
