5 states show how often and how long Americans work second jobs

A single paycheck no longer covers the rent, the groceries, and the other bills in many American households. Rising living costs push some workers to pick up extra employment, and the pattern reaches past a few struggling families. In 2026, 8.6 million Americans hold more than one job, a group equal to 5.3% of everyone employed. A number that large marks multiple jobholding as a routine feature of the American labor market. Knowing where this pressure concentrates shows how far one income stretches in different corners of the country.

Geography shapes how common that extra labor becomes. In some states, a second job remains unusual. In others, the portion of workers juggling two or more paychecks approaches double digits. A spread that wide means holding several roles looks different from one state to the next. Frequency covers half the picture, and the hours involved matter too. A side role that fills a few hours each week asks less of a person than one that rivals a part-time schedule. Tracking both dimensions at once reveals where the practice is most widespread and where it demands the most of a worker's week.

SmartAsset built its analysis on the 2025 Current Population Survey and the 2021-2025 American Time Use Survey, processing both through IPUMS. The study covers workers ages 20 to 64 in every state and the District of Columbia. It tracks three measures: the share of all employed workers with more than one job, the share of full-time workers holding a second one, and average weekly hours at secondary work. Anyone whose usual week at a primary job runs 35 or more hours counts as full-time. Researchers pooled the time-use estimates to strengthen their reliability. Small samples pushed nine states out of the hours analysis, leaving 41 with data on time spent. All results are survey-weighted estimates that carry sampling variability. Figures from other sources may differ, since definitions of secondary work vary. The organizations supplying the underlying data have no affiliation with the study and do not endorse it. The study names the highest and lowest state on each measure without publishing a full ranking, and the slides that follow spotlight five of those states, plus a tax issue that affects anyone paid by more than one employer.

Illustration: Quartz

## Kansas has the highest share of full-time workers in second jobs

Kansas has the largest share of full-time workers holding a second job, at 8.8% among those ages 20 to 64. No other state, and not the District of Columbia, posts a higher share on this measure. The study captures the state's workforce in one word, describing Kansans as hustling.

The figure describes people who already carry a complete workweek at a main job. Nearly nine in every 100 of them add another paid position on top of it. Their extra shifts begin after a full schedule at a primary employer. This sets them apart from part-timers who piece together income from several smaller jobs.

Kansas also posts the highest share on the all-worker measure, where 9.4% of employed residents hold more than one job. This broader count draws on a wider pool that includes part-time staff alongside full-time workers. The two Kansas readings sit 0.6 percentage points apart. The state's lead holds whether the count takes in part-timers or leaves them out.

The state's all-worker share runs about 4.1 percentage points above the national figure, or about 1.8 times the country's overall rate. At 9.4%, Kansas edges toward the double-digit territory the study's highest readings approach. Measured either way, a smaller share of Kansas workers gets by on a single job than in any other state the study examined.

Shortfall: Slide 1 (Kansas) runs about 215 words, under the 300-word minimum. The source gives Kansas two figures (8.8% of full-time workers ages 20 to 64 with a second job and 9.4% of all employed workers with multiple jobs) and a "Kansans are hustling" label. It offers no hours figure, cause, or local detail for Kansas, and no supplementary evidence was supplied, so the slide was not padded.

Illustration: Quartz

Louisiana's multiple-job holders devote about 19.7 hours a week to their secondary work, the heaviest load in any state with time data. At close to 20 hours, the extra job stops being an occasional shift and claims a fixed block of the weekly calendar.

Two kinds of workers make up the Louisiana average. One group holds a full-time primary position and stacks a second job on top. The other strings together several part-time roles. The average captures the typical time both groups spend beyond a main role, whatever arrangement each person has built.

Full-timers in the state face the steeper climb. Someone who fills a full schedule for one employer and matches the state average piles the equivalent of a substantial part-time job onto it. A combined week that long leaves little unclaimed time between shifts. Part-time jugglers reach the same average by a different path, spreading their secondary hours among several employers instead of loading them onto one set schedule.

Louisiana's result describes the weight second jobs place on a worker's time, and it says nothing about how many residents hold them. The study does not name Louisiana as an extreme on either jobholding rate. A state can have a modest number of moonlighters who each hand their side work a large share of their waking hours. The hours measure tracks the burden on people who have taken on an additional role.

The state's figure reflects an average, so individual jobholders land on both sides of it. Some put in more than the mean, and others fit fewer shifts around their principal work. Even so, a secondary commitment of this size places Louisiana's side work closer to steady employment than to pocket-money gigs. Across the state, holding a second job means answering to more than one boss's schedule every week.

Illustration: Quartz

Nebraska's multiple-job holders devote less time to their secondary work than their counterparts in any other state the study measured on hours. Louisiana sits at the opposite end of the same scale. Between them, the two states bracket the weekly commitment that moonlighters in every other measured state make to extra employment.

Nebraska's result tracks the intensity of extra work in the state. It reveals nothing about how many residents hold a second job, a share the study leaves unreported for Nebraska. A small pool of moonlighters and a large one could each produce the same light weekly load, so the hours figure stands on its own as a measure of burden per worker.

A second job in Nebraska takes a smaller bite out of the week than the same arrangement does anywhere else the hours data reaches.

Shortfall: Slide 3 (Nebraska) runs about 120 words against a 300-word minimum. The source supports only one named condition for Nebraska, that its workers spend the least time at second jobs. It gives no Nebraska hours figure, no Nebraska prevalence figure, no cause, and no local detail. No supplementary evidence was supplied. The draft's closing claim about rest, family, or main-job time was cut as unsupported extrapolation.

Illustration: Quartz

Alabama posts the smallest share of employed workers juggling more than one job in the study, at 3.8%. Fewer than four in every 100 working Alabamians answer to a second employer. Measured against the national rate, which uses the same all-worker base, Alabama runs about 1.5 percentage points lower.

Alabama's distance below the national rate shows how unevenly extra work spreads across the country. A state sitting this far under the average helps offset places where the practice approaches double digits. The country's overall rate blends both extremes and describes neither.

The study pairs Alabama with Washington state as the two places where holding several jobs is least common, yet each earns that distinction on its own yardstick. Alabama's measure spans the entire workforce, part-timers included. Washington state's covers full-time workers alone. The two results answer different questions and cannot sit side by side as a single contest.

Alabama's broader base gives its low reading added weight. Part-time workers fall inside the count, a group the full-time measure leaves out. Even with them included, Alabama turns up fewer people collecting more than one paycheck than any other state the study examined. Across its whole labor force, a single employer stays the norm in Alabama.

Illustration: Quartz

About 3% of Washington state's full-time workers ages 20 to 64 hold a second job, the smallest share the study found in any state. Roughly three of every 100 people with a full-time primary job also clock in somewhere else. The remaining 97 hold one job apiece.

Kansas sits at the far end of this full-time yardstick, at 8.8%. The distance between the two states comes to about 5.8 percentage points. A full-time Kansan holds a second job at nearly three times the Washington state frequency. Together, the pair marks the outer edges of the study's results on this gauge. Every other state lands somewhere between them.

The study offers no explanation for Washington state's figure. It names no industry, wage level, or cost pressure behind the result, and readers should assume none.

The study pairs Washington state with Alabama as the two places where holding several jobs proves least common. Each state earns that label on a separate gauge. Alabama's mark covers all employed workers. Washington state's covers full-time workers alone. The split shows that the state where extra work stays rarest shifts depending on whether the count spans the whole workforce or only full-time staff.

This slide runs about 198 words, short of the 300-word minimum. The source gives Washington state one figure, about 3% of full-time workers, plus its pairing with Alabama, and supplies no local detail, causes, or secondary figures to support further expansion without padding.