Australia's Rate Pressure: Almost a Million Workers Juggling Two Jobs

New ABS data shows 978,000 Australians now hold multiple jobs, a stress signal worth watching as the RBA monitors an economy above its growth speed limit.

Buried in Thursday's labour market data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics was a number that tells a lot about where Australian mortgage holders are right now: 978,000 Australians are now working more than one job, up 0.3 per cent in the March quarter. That is a multiple job-holding rate of 6.5 per cent of all employed people — roughly one in fifteen workers piecing together a living from two or more roles.

For borrowers managing mortgage repayments, that number is more than a footnote. It is a proxy for financial stress. When households take on extra work to cover housing costs, the signal tends to appear in multiple job-holding rates before it shows up in formal arrears data.

The Rate Hike Connection Is Direct

The multiple job-holding rate did not arrive at 6.5 per cent by accident. It was sitting at 6 per cent before 2020, dipped to 5.1 per cent during the early months of the pandemic, then recovered as borders reopened and the economy bounced back.

The sharp move came when the Reserve Bank began its rapid hiking cycle from mid-2022 to the end of 2023, lifting the cash rate from 0.1 per cent to 4.35 per cent. The multiple job-holding rate jumped to 6.7 per cent during that period. A research paper by IMF economists, co-authored with a senior RBA researcher, found the connection was direct: when the RBA hiked rates rapidly, many Australians in highly indebted households took on second or third jobs to manage their rising interest payments.

The rate today — 6.5 per cent of the workforce holding multiple jobs — has eased from that 6.7 per cent peak, but it has not normalised to pre-pandemic levels. March quarter ABS data showed secondary jobs rose 0.6 per cent to 1.1 million, total hours worked increased 0.9 per cent to 6.1 billion hours across 16.2 million filled jobs. The proportion of vacant jobs increased to 2.1 per cent. The picture is of a labour market still running hard, partly by necessity.

What the RBA's Own Commentary Tells Us

At an economic outlook event in Sydney on Thursday, Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser put Australia's economic "speed limit" — the sustainable growth rate that does not generate inflation — at around 2 per cent a year. Australia is currently growing at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent, and Hauser acknowledged the slowdown has "well and truly begun."

That gap between current growth and the RBA's sustainable threshold shapes the rate outlook. Hauser noted that the RBA and Treasury hold different economic forecasts, but the differences are "not terribly large." If the economy slows as expected, the case for holding or eventually cutting rates builds. If growth proves stickier than expected — holding above that 2 per cent speed limit — the pressure on borrowers continues.

For mortgage holders, the lesson from recent years is that planning around one assumed rate direction can be costly when you are wrong. Understanding what your repayments look like under different rate scenarios — rather than anchoring to the current rate — is a more resilient approach.

There is also a second layer of uncertainty worth tracking. As ABC News reported Thursday, the government's proposed negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms have contributed to a slowdown in auction activity as buyers and sellers wait to see how the legislation lands in the Senate. That wait-and-see pattern is likely to persist through June, creating uncertainty on both the demand and supply sides of the property market.

What Borrowers Can Do Right Now

If you are among the 978,000 Australians working multiple jobs — at least in part to cover your mortgage — it is worth asking whether your current interest rate is doing its fair share of the work. The research tells us many Australian households absorbed rate hikes by working more rather than restructuring their debt. That is a slow and expensive approach when better options may exist.

Use the [refinance savings calculator](/calculators/refinance-savings) to put an actual dollar figure on what switching could mean for your repayments. If you are reassessing your overall borrowing position in light of current conditions, the [borrowing power calculator](/calculators/borrowing-power) lets you map your capacity across a range of rate scenarios before making decisions.

If rate movement in either direction concerns you, speaking with a broker who can access the full market is the most efficient way to understand your real options. You can also [compare home loan rates across lenders](/home-loans/cheapest) as a starting point.

ABC News covered the full March quarter ABS labour account data and Reserve Bank commentary in its live markets blog [published on 5 June 2026](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/asx-markets-business-live-news-june-5-2026/106762414).