(Lexington County resident Megan Yelton holds down several jobs, including a full-time position as the manager of a Columbia clothing store. Photo by Power Suit Portraits)

Megan Yelton understands a thing or two about putting in long hours. The Lexington County resident not only works a full-time job as the manager of a Columbia clothing store, but she also holds down three part-time jobs.

“I’m a single mother and I don’t receive child support, so I need every dollar I can earn,” she said. “I’ve been working seven days a week for the past five years, and while I’m making enough to get by, it’s still difficult to put anything in the bank.”

Yelton works eight hours a day Monday through Friday at Sid and Nancy, in Columbia’s Five Points district. She tends bar at New Brookland Tavern two nights a week and is a food server on weekends at The Gourmet Shop, both of which are also in Five Points. 

If that weren’t enough, Yelton is also on call to help sell merchandise for bands playing gigs in the Columbia area, which happens about once a month. Finally, she also makes and sells her own jewelry.

“When my employees complain to me about having to work, I have zero sympathy,” she said. “I’ve been working full time basically since I was 15.”

Yelton is among the more than 100,000 South Carolinians – more than one of every 20 workers in the state – with multiple jobs. There are several factors behind that figure, including inflation, the rise in remote work, and instability in the job market, which has made it more difficult for some to find secure full-time work.

The rising cost of goods and services seen during the past three-plus years is a big factor, according to Erica Von Nessen, a research economist with the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

“We saw a sharp increase in the percentage of people in South Carolina working more than one job starting in 2022, which was when inflation really jumped,” she said. “When you have fixed costs and you see those costs rise, a lot of time people have to get a second job to make ends meet.”

Between January 2021 and December 2024, South Carolina experienced a 22.4 percent increase in prices for goods and services, according to information from the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee. That was a sharper increase than the national average of 20.7 percent. 

Over the past five years, inflation has eaten into the buying power of the U.S. dollar. Today, it takes $1.89 to buy what $1.00 bought in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The surge in prices brought with it an increased percentage of South Carolinians who hold more than one job. That figure grew from 4.5 percent between 2016-2021 to 5.5 percent beginning in 2022, according to Department of Employment and Workforce figures. Before 2016, the figure was about 4 percent.

Nationwide, 8.9 million Americans reported working multiple jobs in February, the most since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the figure more than 30 years ago. Other sources report that figure is much higher. A survey by Bankrate.com last year, for example, reported more than one in three U.S. adults were working more than one job.

“While it's admirable that so many Americans are putting in extra time and effort on their side hustles, it's unfortunate that most are doing so simply to fund their expenses,” Bankrate Senior Credit Card Analyst Ted Rossman said last year.

And while holding down multiple jobs can help those who bring in more than one paycheck, the phenomenon isn’t without its downsides. 

The increase in “overemployed workers” – those with multiple jobs – can result in a tighter job market, limiting opportunities for others looking for work, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Not surprisingly, working multiple jobs can also contribute to more mistakes in the workplace and sleeping difficulties at home.

Why multiple jobs?

Extra jobs range from minimum wage work at convenience stores to pulling in $100 or more an hour as an engineering consultant.

Second jobs can take on many different forms in South Carolina, including part-time work as an activity instructor for the city of Florence ($11.23 an hour), bilingual business consultant at the University of South Carolina (up to $25 an hour), relief trolley driver in Greenville ($19.60-$24.99 an hour), and even pulling on a pair of hockey skates and helping scrape the ice during South Carolina Stingrays minor league hockey games ($50 a game).

There are a number of popular second jobs that work on a commission or per-job basis, as well. These include selling real estate and insurance, and taking on creative work such as graphic design and medical writing. 

A significant percentage of those with multiple jobs – more than one in three – use their extra earnings to help cover living expenses. Others put the money toward paying down debt, boosting savings, and using it for discretionary spending, Bankrate.com reported last year. 

Some of the trend can be attributed to the Covid-19 lockdown, said Bruce Yandle, dean emeritus of the Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Sciences and former executive director of the Federal Trade Commission.

“We had an explosion of entrepreneurship as a result of Covid,” he said. “It was out of necessity, as a lot of people were locked out of work when businesses shut down, and they had to find a way to make money.”

Covid is also attributed to a significant drop in the overall workforce. At the height of the pandemic, more than 120,000 businesses temporarily closed, and more than 30 million U.S. workers were unemployed, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The total adult population not in the workforce, which includes retirees, students, stay-at-home mothers, and those out of work, rose from approximately 95 million at the beginning of 2020 to around 108 million after the lockdown went into effect.

That number fell some afterward, but there are believed to be about 5 million adults who did not re-enter the workforce. It’s estimated that 80 percent of those individuals are over the age of 55.

Members of the baby boom generation – those born from 1946 to 1964 – are exiting the workforce much faster than was anticipated, a trend that began with Covid, according to the St. Louis Fed.

How do fewer people in the workforce lead to more people with second jobs? There are more openings at present than there are available workers. That means businesses desperate for employees may settle for bringing in some people on a part-time basis. 

Other companies, especially those in the service industry, are able to hire people for shorter shifts or shorter work weeks, such as restaurant servers, retail workers, and fast food employees. An individual with a full-time job and some flexibility can often pick up a second job if they desire.

Another unintended consequence of the Covid lockdown was the rise of telecommuting. More Americans today work remotely or on a hybrid schedule than before the pandemic. This helps those looking for second jobs, who may no longer have to spend time commuting and have more freedom in setting their schedules.

At least one Upstate recruiter said she’s noticed a lot of individuals who left the workplace in recent years opting to jump back in, even if only on part-time basis.

“We’re seeing this with retirees, especially,” said Julie Godshall Brown, owner and president of Godshall Recruiting in Greenville. “These can be people who don’t want to stop working or contributing completely. Some of them thought they wanted to retire or maybe didn’t have a choice about retiring.” 

Companies undergoing change are often good targets for those looking to get back into the workforce or to take on a second job, she added.

Businesses in transition are often in need of part-time help, whether they were bought, sold, are opening a new facility, or going through a lot of growth,” Brown said. “They need people to complement their existing staff, and it often works out well for those who are looking for new work or extra work.”

Hobby, necessity, or both?

Many second jobs involve working from home or out of a home, often providing services.

The Covid lockdown offered opportunities for those who wanted to pick up “gig” jobs, which often involved freelance or project work. Today, companies such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart offer millions of Americans gig opportunities.

At the same time, the lockdown changed the way people thought about delivery services.

“I had never had groceries delivered before Covid, and I didn’t think that was something I would ever consider, but we saw demand for companies such as Uber Eats and Instacart take off,” Von Nessen said. “Whether it was food, medicines, packages, or whatever, demand for delivery was really turbocharged during that time.”

With the lockdown, millions of Americans went online to order food from supermarkets, restaurants, and fast food establishments for the first time. Food delivery companies were among those that saw a sharp spike in business. 

With that demand came a need for workers, many of them part-time employees, to make deliveries. A significant number of Americans embraced gig work such as shuttling food between restaurants and consumers.

Others took the opportunity to transform a hobby into a paying job – sometimes out of necessity. This includes Matty Rich, a 43-year-old Greenville resident.

Rich, who started trading sports cards as a child, turned to the hobby to alleviate some of the lockdown-related boredom.

“It was during the pandemic and everyone was stuck in the house with nowhere to go. You can only watch Netflix for so long, so I started looking for other things I could do,” said Rich, who was working as a supervisor at an Upstate lighting company. 

Rich had grown up visiting card shows and shops with his father. He had been “in and out” of cards for much of his life, but he re-embraced them amid Covid. In 2020, he started selling cards online, and it quickly took off. Before long, he found himself working two full-time jobs.

“It got to the point where I was online selling cards to people all over the place at all hours of the day and night – when I wasn’t working at my corporate job,” he said. “The more this took off, the more I realized that this was where I wanted to be.”

In 2023, he opened Bryan’s Sports Cards and More in Greenville, a brick-and-mortar operation that has proven lucrative but also time consuming.

“I tell people who are thinking of starting their own businesses that you have to plan ahead,” he said. “You have to map out your goals and celebrate every little win along that path. If you do it right, those small wins will end up being a big victory.”

Of course, not all second jobs set the world on fire. 

Individuals with multiple jobs average about 35 hours per week at their primary job and another 13.5 hours per week across their other jobs. These figures have been relatively stable over the past three decades, according to the St. Louis Fed. 

Even with the extra hours, however, real annual earnings for the average person working multiple jobs is just $900 more than those with a single job, $57,865 compared with $56,965. This is despite the former requiring an average of 174 hours more a year.

Nationwide, the average age of those working multiple jobs is 42.5. Exact figures aren’t yet available for South Carolina, but Von Nessen said the largest population sector in the state working multiple jobs is in the 35 to 54 range.

“I was expecting it to be younger people but it’s actually adults between 35 and 54. Adults with families with children,” she said.

Yelton, the Lexington County resident who holds four jobs, falls into that category. The 40-year old said she’s fortunate because she’s able to live with her parents, who can watch her preteen son when she’s working.

“There’s no way I’d be able to make it if I didn’t have my parents here,” she said. “And, as hard as it is, the sacrifice is worth it as long as my son is doing OK.”