By the Women’s Budget Group

One in four young women in Great Britain have experiences of working in more than one job over the course of a tax year, according to new analysis by the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham and the UK Women’s Budget Group that highlights the growing pressures facing young workers.

The research casts new light on the scale of the issue, as standard labour market statistics fail to capture the full extent of multiple jobholding and the risk to young women who do so in securing an income.

The trend reflects deeper structural problems in the UK labour market, including low pay, unpredictable hours, temporary contracts and weak enforcement of employment rights.

Together with the Young Women’s Trust, the academics and the Women’s Budget Group are now calling on the Government to deliver the Employment Rights Act in full and introduce targeted measures to address multiple jobholding among young women, warning that without intervention these patterns risk entrenching gender inequalities across women’s working lives.

Key findings

• Young women (16–29) are the group most likely to work multiple jobs compared to older women and men, according to HMRC payroll data and self-reported survey data.
• Innovative research linking the latest available payroll data from HMRC with the annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reveals that one in four (24.7%) young women in Great Britain were in multiple jobs within the 2018-2019 tax year compared to one in five men (20.2%).
• This is backed by more recent self-reported data from the Understanding Society Survey, showing that one in ten young women in the UK reported holding more than one job at the same time in 2023-24. Among young men, by contrast, around one in fifteenreported having more than one job.
• This is an increase on the previous year: in 2022-23, the multiple jobholding rate for young women in the UK was 7.7%, increasing to 10.6%, and from 5.5% to 6.8% for young men respectively.
• The increase observed in this data suggests that payroll records are also likely to show rising multiple jobholding once updated figures are released by HMRC.
• The analysis also finds a strong link between multiple jobholding and insecure work. More than a third (36%) of young women with multiple jobs were on a temporary contract in their main job in 2023-24,compared with a quarter (24%) of young women with only one job.
• Hospitality stands out as a key sector for young multiple jobholders for both women and men. While around 12% of young women worked in hospitality overall in 2018-2019, this rises toaround 18%among young female multiple jobholders, reflecting the prevalence of short hours and insecure contracts.
• Young women in customer-facing and insecure roles face heightened risks of sexual harassment. Young Women’s Trust research documents widespread experiences of  harassment, particularly in hospitality, and shows how power imbalances linked to insecure contracts silence young women.
• Young women in multiple jobs are at particular risk of long-term pension disadvantage as many do not reach the £10,000 annual earnings threshold with any single employer required for automatic pension enrolment.

Dr Darja Reuschke, Associate Professor at City-REDI University of Birmingham, said: “The data sources that are typically used to inform employment policies are seriously underreporting how common multiple jobholding really is. As a result, the issue has largely been overlooked.”

Emma Thackray, Senior Research and Data Officer at the Women’s Budget Group, said: “Young women are increasingly piecing together multiple insecure jobs just to get by – and this is rarely by choice. Too many roles offer low pay, short hours and little security, leaving young women vulnerable now and threatening their economic futures. We’re currently looking at an average 43% gender pensions gap, more than three times the gender pay gap. The Employment Rights Act is a crucial step forward to provide guaranteed hours provisions, but the Government must take multiple jobholding seriously and introduce targeted measures to protect women’s long-term financial security.”

Katharine Sacks-Jones, Chief Executive at Young Women’s Trust, said: “For too many young women, juggling multiple jobs isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity and it often comes at the cost of their wellbeing. Young women tell us they’re shattered, exhausted, and anxious. These jobs are often insecure, leaving young women waiting for ‘the call’ to let them know if they’re needed or not and fearing saying no to shifts in case they’re not offered more – even when they’re burnt out. And they’re often trapped – with no opportunities to develop or progress. As well as urgently needing the greater security that the Employment Rights Act promises, young women need routes from insecure work into jobs that fit their ambitions and potential.”

Based on these findings, the researchers together with the Women’s Budget Group and the Young Women’s Trust, call on the Government to:

• Deliver ‘Make Work Pay’ policies in full under the Employment Rights Act, ending one-sided flexibility and ensuring enforceable rights to guaranteed hours, fair cancellation pay, and protection from unpaid trial shifts.
• Reform pension auto-enrolment by lowering or removing earnings thresholds and extending coverage to workers aged 18+, addressing long-term financial insecurity for multiple jobholders.
• Fulfil its commitment to abolish discriminatory youth rates for all adult workers. Young workers under 21 should be paid the National Living Wage.
• Embed mental health protections in job quality and enforcement.
• Strengthen protections against sexual harassment.
• Recognise multiple jobholding as a structural labour market issue, particularly affecting young women, and embed it in policy design, evaluation and enforcement.
• Improve labour market data and monitoring by expanding linked administrative data through HM Revenue and Customs and the Office for National Statistics to capture insecure, short-hours and multiple jobholding work.

The full report is available here. This research is part of a wider project headed by Dr Darja Reuschke at the University of Birmingham funded by the ADR UK, of which the Women’s Budget Group is a project partner.

The UK Women’s Budget Group is the UK’s leading feminist economics think tank, providing evidence and analysis on women’s economic position and proposing policy alternatives for a gender-equal economy.

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