The semi-proletarian lifestyle in the twenty-first century: multiple jobholding, precarity, and anti-work in the U.S

Abstract

Multiple jobholding has been growing in the United States (and many European countries) for several decades, with growth accelerating after the economic crisis of 2008. While the trend was interrupted briefly by the COVID-19 pandemic, it continued afterward, despite a strong labor market. Drawing on official data sources, and focusing on the U.S. case, the paper shows that multiple jobholding is especially common among young people and, while not always driven by need, is closely linked to precarity. Using both official statistics and ethnographic interviews, it argues that we need to understand this trend in the context of the growth of risk and insecurity in the years since 1970, and links multiple jobholding to an “anti-work” critique in which on-the-books jobs are conceptualized as only part of a complex “semi-proletarian” livelihood strategy.