Moonlighting in a High Growth Economy: Evidence from U.S. State-Level Data

Despite the prevalence of multiple jobholding, there is relatively little research into its causes. Existing research has tested the predictions of standard labor models with micro data. Yet, there has been virtually no research into the relationship between moonlighting and structural differences in regional labor markets such as wages and employment growth. In this manner, this study examines the large differences in multiple jobholding rates across U.S. states. The findings indicate that multiple jobholding acts as a short-term shock absorber to cyclical changes. However, in the long-term, these effects dissipate, indicating that moonlighting plays a similar role as do changes in unemployment and labor-force participation to regional labor market shocks. Conversely, multiple jobholding rates are inversely related to average weekly earnings. Thus, job growth accompanied by real wage (and productivity) growth may result in a decline in multiple jobholding, further exacerbating potential labor shortages. Other key factors found to influence multiple jobholding include occupational structure and education. Copyright 2002 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

"It is time computers do clever things! ": The impact of dependent interviewing on interviewer burden

Despite the increased interest in assessing the effects of dependent interviewing (DI) on data quality, the impact of DI on interviewer burden and interviewer-respondent interaction remains currently unexplored and undocumented. Drawing on Japec's work, this article attempts to evaluate the impact of DI on interviewer burden and describes the mechanisms by which DI affects perceived interviewer burden and ultimately data quality. We use a diverse set of data including qualitative data collected from a survey carried out in 2006 on the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) interviewers. Three main findings stand out: DI is usually welcomed by interviewers; under condition of no change in respondent circumstances, DI eases interviewer burden; the mechanisms by which DI eases interviewer burden are complex as interviewer burden factors are often strictly related to respondent burden; and there are strong interrelationships among the different factors that constitute interviewer burden. © The Author(s) 2011

Distancing flexibility in the hotel industry : the role of employment agencies as labour suppliers

Two interrelated aspects of the debate on the nature of labour supply chain in the hotel industry form the focus of this research article. First, the notion of a shift to some forms of human resources recruitment strategies which seeks to use agency staff as a means of generating economical benefits - as opposed to conventional permanent staffing; and, second, the paramount importance of using distancing flexibility through effective agency utilization with the consequence of controlling labour costs, satisfying firm's demand for labour, and to respond to possible fluctuations in manpower needs. To this end, the research advocates the use of qualitative methodology in the form of semi-structured and in-depth interviews with hotel housekeeping managers, their partner agency managers and their flexible workers. Based upon the interviewees' responses and other documentary sources, we find, among others, that pursuing labour flexibility appears to be inevitable in the hotel industry; that the three-tier flexible firm model (Atkinson 1984) does not provide a full account of the supply chain relationship between hotels and employment agencies; and that employees are being relatively treated as a 'cost' - as opposed to a 'resource' (see Slack, Chambers and Johnston 2004). To conclude, the research evidence is used, combined with previous literature, to discuss the implications of these results for broader debates on the utilization of flexible workers in the supply chain relationship between the client hotels and their partner agencies