by Ada Zhang
NEW YORK, March 21 (Xinhua)-- At 6 p.m., Ryan Calloway finishes his shift at a library and returns to his home in Brooklyn, New York. After hanging up his brown corduroy blazer, he pops a frozen meal into the microwave. Dinner takes just 20 minutes. By 8 p.m., he heads to his bedroom and begins his second job of the day, working until 10 p.m.
Calloway has three regular part-time jobs. On Monday and Wednesday, he works for a private book collector, at a special collections library on Tuesday and Thursday, and for another private collector on Friday and Sunday. Occasionally, he picks up extra work on Saturday, assisting at book fairs.
Calloway is one of many Americans juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that a record high of approximately 8.9 million Americans said they work multiple jobs, the highest number since the BLS began tracking the number in 1994.
"There isn't a full-time job available for me right now. There's not enough funding for a full-time position. It's pretty common in libraries to hire part-time staff because they can't always afford full-time roles," Calloway told Xinhua.
Around 5.4 percent of the U.S. workforce holds a second job, a level not seen since the Great Recession in April 2009, according to the BLS. Roughly 60 percent of these multiple jobholders work full time while taking on part-time work during their off-hours.
A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released earlier this month found that 50.2 percent of Americans working multiple jobs held a four-year college degree, up 9.1 percentage points from 2019.
Calloway, 31, with a bachelor's degree in English literature and a master's in library and information science, works approximately 45 hours a week and earns 48,000 U.S. dollars annually. The median household income in New York City last year was around 74,700 dollars, according to the data from the United States Census Bureau.
Reduced government funding and rising costs for rent, groceries, and other essentials have pushed more Americans to take on additional jobs.
"In the past, rare books librarians might have taken on extra work by choice, but now it's about survival," said Calloway. "Funding has been cut, and many people are either leaving the industry or working multiple jobs."
He said that government funding from endowments and grants has been slashed for decades, with further cuts under the administration of President Donald Trump.
"The cost of living is also rising. Even if funding stays the same, it's not enough. Twenty years ago, 40,000 dollars a year might have been fine, but now it's not much," he added.
The consumer price index report released by the BLS in March showed a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase in February for essential costs like food, shelter, and energy.
Egg prices surged 10 percent month over month, driven by shortages tied to an avian flu outbreak. Meanwhile, energy prices rose 0.2 percent from January to February, fueled by higher fuel oil and natural gas costs.
"You have to work a lot harder to make ends meet," Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida, told CNBC.
"If you're going to try to have some semblance of a traditional life with kids, and a house and transportation, [it] takes a lot of money to do that," McClanahan said.
Private sector hiring slowed sharply in February and missed Wall Street's expectations, according to ADP data. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve updated its unemployment forecast this week, predicting the rate would rise to 4.4 percent this year, up from its December estimate of 4.3 percent.
Kevin Murray, 25, who holds a bachelor's degree in music performance, works as a private music teacher. To make ends meet, he also works at a record shop and a local farmers' market. Additionally, he takes on irregular jobs, including event production for Trump's inauguration, where he worked 80 to 90 hours per week.
For a time, Murray also worked at a grocery store in a lower-middle-income neighborhood, where most customers relied on food stamps.
"It was clear that the prices were very high for them, and they could only afford groceries through the food stamp program. But even with that assistance, the grocery prices were still insanely high," Murray told Xinhua. He added that his rent increased for the first time in about eight years, rising by 90 dollars a month -- a significant jump for him.
Concerns about tariffs are also pushing consumers to anticipate higher inflation. Experts warn that products like fuel and fresh produce could see almost immediate price hikes following tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Fresh produce cannot stay on shelves for long, meaning imports affected by tariffs will quickly reach consumers, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.
"Higher tariffs will translate into higher prices for some products very quickly," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "It will take longer for everything from vehicles to appliances to consumer electronics." ■
