Multiple job holding and income mobility in Indonesia

Indonesia, one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, has lifted a significant portion of its population out of poverty and has experienced improved living standards over the past decade. However, this occurred within a context of growing inequality as indicated by a segmented labour market between standard and non-standard employment. This study examines the relationship between income mobility and non-standard employment using multiple job holding as a case study. Our empirical analysis based on the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) shows that multiple job holding is a prominent feature of Indonesia's labour market. However, for a significant bulk of the pluriactive workers, multiple job holding seems to be a necessary labour supply behaviour to make ends meet. Moreover, the data do not provide sufficient evidence that pluriactivity in the country is strongly correlated with long-term income mobility. This seems to be in contrast to findings from developed countries indicating that multiple job holding can be used to improve one's mobility prospects. We conclude that further investigation is needed to determine whether multiple job holding in Indonesia is correlated with other dimensions of social mobility.