We don’t talk about the unemployed, let alone the working poor. About 20 per cent of my resume and career advice clients fall in to the latter category.

Male full-time work was on the slide before the Coronavirus hit. Now it’s in free fall.

There are still nearly 300,000 fewer “main” jobs compared with before the pandemic hit.

Prior to the 1990s recession over 80% of men aged 25-64 worked full-time. Within three years it had fallen to below 74%. And after the GFC, it kept falling.

The big reason why there’s a jobs recovery is because of the number of people working a second or third job.

In the first three months of this year, a record 828,200 people held multiple jobs.

Main jobs have increased 3.3%, while secondary jobs have surged 34% – and good paying full-time or part-time work is less available than in the past.

Pretty much the only industries that have seen any significant increase in main work has been health and social care, and professional, science and technical services.

All up now 7.5% of all jobs in Australia are secondary ones and 6.3% of all workers work more than one job.

The working poor have a job but find they need another (or more) to make ends meet. It’s this need for more work, which has powered the “recovery”.

Since June last year, secondary jobs have accounted for nearly 40% of all recovered jobs.