What struggling job seekers are doing to earn thousands in extra income while they look for work
Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
- Some Americans are struggling to find work due to a challenging labor market.
- Many have found temporary ways to generate some income while they look for jobs.
- These strategies aren't always enough to prevent significant financial challenges.
Americans who are struggling to land full-time jobs are finding creative ways to pay the bills while they search for work.
Juan Pelaez has been looking for a job for more than two years. To generate some income, Pelaez said he's driven for Uber Eats and Instacart, done some part-time work for his prior employer, and was a background actor in the coming film "Happy Gilmore 2." However, since he was laid off from his account executive job at a marketing agency, Pelaez said he and his wife have taken on tens of thousands of dollars in debt from credit cards and personal loans.
Pelaez, 47, is based in New Jersey and said he earned about $3,500 across roughly 22 days of work for the acting opportunity. Landing the gig has helped him get similar work on a few other productions.
"It has not accounted for a full-time position salary, but it has been a great help," he told Business Insider.
Juan Pelaez
Pelaez is among the Americans who have had a hard time finding work in recent years. Since October, more than 750 recent job seekers between the ages of 18 and 76 have responded to Business Insider's informal, nonrepresentative surveys and shared their stories with reporters through emails. Some said they've faced stiff competition for white-collar roles, while others shared that they couldn't land a job in their industry, despite having an advanced degree.
Their struggles have been driven in part by a widespread hiring slowdown in the US. Excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020, US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013. Among the nearly 7 million unemployed individuals as of December, about 1.5 million had been looking for work for at least six months — up from 1.1 million a year prior. To be sure, the unemployment rate remains low compared with historical levels.
The job seekers who BI heard from said part-time employment, gig work, selling their belongings, and other strategies have helped them stay afloat financially, but many continue to face significant financial challenges.
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Many earning opportunities don't replace a full-time job
Some job seekers told BI they found part-time roles, but the jobs haven't paid enough to cover the bills.
Rhonda Alexander has been looking for customer success management jobs since being laid off from her tech role in March 2023. To earn some income, Alexander, who's 55 and based in Illinois, started working part-time as an AI content engineer last April. She said the role involved evaluating the quality of AI-generated content.
Alexander said she enjoyed the work but was paid $21 an hour, which she felt wasn't enough to support herself. She said that her contract came to an end in late December.
"It seems that I am back on this miserable roller coaster of seeking a role in order to literally put food on the table and a roof over my head," she said. Going forward, Alexander said she's focused on developing new income streams, including becoming a notary. She's also driven for Uber and DoorDash in recent months.
Amanda Wilson has been looking for work for months. She quit her part-time caregiving gig in July — which she said was unsustainable due to the long commute and the physical demands of the job. She said an injury she suffered last year has limited her.
The 35-year-old, who's based in Arizona, said she's applied to hundreds of jobs — including customer service and management roles — but has only received an offer for one job: a different part-time caregiving gig where she's working 10 hours a week.
To earn some income, Wilson said she sold her Xbox One and a few video games for about $150, as well as three swords from her collection for about $100 each. But this money wasn't enough: Wilson said she's been forced to max out her credit cards and draw upon her savings.
"Right now, I can afford rent and my car payment for this coming month, but that's it," she said in December, adding, "I will probably have to sell off more things."
Meanwhile, Pelaez is hopeful that boosting his skills — and reflecting those changes on his résumé — will help him land a job that matches his experience level. For example, he said he's working toward Google's data analytics certificate through Coursera. While he's continued his gig driving and acting work, he said he temporarily paused his job search in October.
"With the overwhelming ghosting and lack of feedback from prospective employers, it becomes a cycle of never-ending applications," he said.