Abstract (eng)
The study deals with the employment form of multiple jobholding by university graduate women in Vienna and its environment. This employment form describes the combination of regular, contemporaneous, paid activities.
The qualitative investigation treats the question which employment and life circumstances are constituted by combining several jobs. Further on it is asked which options for action highly trained women have in this situation. To answer these questions fifteen problemcentered interviews with university graduate women who are multiple jobholders have been evaluated.
The result of this investigation is a typology of working conditions and life circumstances of multiple jobholding university graduate women, which is based on the description of their motivations to combine several employments and the described life circumstances.
The report refers to the "Lebenslagen Konzept" by Ingeborg Nahsen (1975). Problematic circumstances are therefore interpreted as limitation of possibilities to act; advantaged circumstances on the other hand are seen as enlargement of these possibilities and an increase in autonomy for the women.
The study follows two argumentations: On the one hand multiple jobholding is seen as alternative, atypical employment form compared to standard employment relationships, i.e. as an employment form which offers more autonomy in work and corresponds better to the individual conceptions of work/life balance than the highly standardized form of standard employment contracts. On the other hand it is examined in how far the irregularities in
multiple jobholding promote precarious life and working circumstances.
Following the model of four ‘zones’ of social life by Robert Castel (2000) the different types of employment are situated closer to the zone of integration or to the zone of precariousness. Problems and advantages of multiple jobholding for high educated women are illustrated.
Besides the empirical analysis of reasons for multiple jobholding and of the living circumstances and working conditions of the interviewed women, the study offers a
theoretical approach to the phenomenon of multiple jobholding as atypical employment form and shows possible negative effects on working conditions, labor market position and social security linked to it.
The development trends in multiple jobholding are shown on the basis of the data of the Hauptverband der Sozialversicherungsträger (STATISTIK Austria 1987-2006b; Haydn 1995-2007) and the Labor Force Survey (STATISTIK Austria 2006; EUROSTAT 2007). It focuses on the difference between women and men in Vienna and Austria.