Multiple Job Holding: Interpreting Economic, Labour Market and Social Change in Rural Communities

Abstract

This article reports research investigating the ways individuals and families in New Zealand have adapted to and created economic and social change through holding multiple jobs since the beginning of a period of restructuring in the 1980s. Our research has been stimulated by the very significant increase in multiple job holding in New Zealand over the whole workforce, and more particularly in rural areas over the last 25 years. We show how a focus on multiple job holding can contribute to interpretations of changing rural economic and social relations associated with work and employment.