3 million people in Japan exercise additional jobs for more income

A study revealed that 3.05 million people in Japan held side jobs last year to make ends meet. The latest findings, released on July 21, represent an increase of 600 thousand people who held side jobs compared to the previous study in 2017, and the Japanese government polled about 540 thousand households nationwide last October. Those holding side jobs represented 4.8% of the total, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous survey.

2.5% of regular workers held side jobs. However, 7.2% of people in irregular jobs held side jobs.

The wholesale and retail sectors accounted for the largest number of people in second jobs at 420 thousand. The figure for the medical and social welfare sectors was 400 A. The study also revealed that 4.93 million people currently do not have a second job and are considering finding another supporting job. This represents an increase of 930 thousand from the previous study.

Among regular workers, 7.7% expressed interest in a side job, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous study. There has been almost no change in the proportion of irregular workers to determine a second source of income. The study also included, for the first time in a basic statistic, the number of self-employed entrepreneurs. Free stabilizers were defined as those without a specific place of business. A total of 2.09 million people were identified as free investors, along with 480 thousand holding a second job as free investors.