Search and multiple jobholding

This paper develops an equilibrium model of the labor market that incorporates hours worked, off- and on-the-job search, and both single and multiple jobholders. Central to the model’s mechanism is that taking on a second job ties the worker to her primary employer, while simultaneously providing the worker with a stronger outside option when bargaining with the secondary employer. The model quantitatively accounts for both the incidence of multiple jobholding and worker flows in and out of second jobs. It also sheds light on how multiple jobholding shapes outcomes that are typically the focus of search models. Multiple jobholding has opposing effects on job-to-job transitions, which largely offset each other. At the same time, the option of holding second jobs extends the survival of a worker’s main job, thereby reducing job separations and increasing the employment rate. These findings have significant implications for calibrating standard search models that ignore multiple jobholding.