About one in 10 registered nurses in the U.S. hold more than one job, federal data suggests.
The data comes from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, an annual poll conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration and U.S. Census Bureau. The latest version of the survey, released in March, includes responses from 49,234 registered nurses polled in 2022 and early 2023. HRSA also operates an interactive data dashboard that compares 2018 and 2022 survey responses in key areas, such as nursing demographics, employment and job satisfaction.
Four key takeaways:
1. During the pandemic, many nurses began to view side gigs as an opportunity to not only supplement their income, but potentially trim their bedside hours or leave hospital nursing entirely. However, federal data shows the percentage of nurses with second jobs has actually fallen from 15% in 2000 to 10% in 2022.
2. Of nurses holding multiple jobs, 86% were female and 14% were male. In total, men account for 12% of the nation's nursing workforce, suggesting they are slightly overrepresented in the subset of nurses with multiple jobs.
3. Nurses aged 35 to 44 were most likely to hold multiple positions (32%), followed by those aged 45 to 54 (28%) and those aged 34 or younger (18%).
4. When segmented by race and ethnicity, white nurses accounted for 58% of those with multiple jobs. Eighteen percent of secondary job holders were Black, 10% were Hispanic, 8% were Asian and 6% were Pacific Islander or multiple races.