Patchwork jobs, hidden underutilisation and the mismeasurement of employment

Join this seminar to explore the hidden realities of the ‘patchwork economy’, where multiple jobholding and underemployment are often overlooked or misrepresented in official data.

Bringing together leading researchers and policy voices, the event will examine why these forms of labour underutilisation persist, who is most affected - particularly women and young people - and what this means for how we measure employment and design effective policy responses.

Register for a place 

Background

Working in two or more concurrent jobs is a persistent feature of labour markets. Yet, it remains inadequately captured in official statistics, which suggest that multiple jobholding is marginal in scale. In reality, multiple jobbing or ‘side hustles’ are frequently driven by insufficient working hours.

Time-based underemployment, one dimension of labour underutilisation, poses a related challenge. Both multiple jobholding and time-based underemployment are often conflated with part-time employment, obscuring the lived realities of workers, especially women and young people. For many women, part-time employment is miscounted as working less when in fact it reflects the necessity of taking on additional jobs to make ends meet.

This seminar brings together researchers and activists to explore the extent of these hidden forms of employment, their underlying causes, associated inequalities, and their implications for workers, families, employers and policy. It aims to advance discussion on how to better conceptualise and measure the complexities of the ‘patchwork economy’ and hidden labour underutilisation, and to identify policies and practices that could make a difference - especially for women.

Agenda

9:15-9:40	Registration, tea and coffee
9:40-9:50	Welcome Darja Reuschke, ADR UK Fellow & Daniel Wheatley, Director of the Work Inclusivity Research Centre (WIRC)
9:50-10:45	Multiple jobholding Moonlighting in Europe (Wieteke Conen, University of Amsterdam) Women’s Work: The Juggling Act of Multiple Jobs (Louise Lawson, University of Glasgow)
10:45-11:15	Break
11:15-12:30	Complexities and implications Time-related underemployment in the Swiss cleaning sector (Karin Schwiter, University of Zurich) What is underemployment and why does it matter? (Vanessa Beck, University of Bristol) Learning and earning – the complexities of young people’s lives (Lilith Brouwers, University of Leeds)
12:40-13:30	Lunch
13:30-14:30	Mismeasurement and new opportunities to uncover inequalities Multiple jobholding in the UK using payroll data (Darja Reuschke, University of Birmingham) New data opportunities for studying complexities (Van Phan, University of the West of England, Bristol)
14:30-15:00	Reflections and round-up UK Women’s Budget Group: policy and practical implication

Event details

When: 12 May

Where: Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre, Peter Scott House, 48 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2RA

Cost: Free

How to register: Sign up via Eventbrite. Registration is available for both in-person and online attendance. For enquiries, please contact Darja Reuschke, d.reuschke@bham.ac.uk.

This seminar is funded as part of Darja Reuschke's ADR UK fellowship in collaboration with Tracey Warren (University of Nottingham) and the UK Women’s Budget Group (ES/Z503149/1). The seminar is organised together with the Work Inclusivity Research Centre, Birmingham Business School, and the ESRC Underemployment Project (Vanessa Beck and Tracey Warren).