MOONLIGHTING CHOICE IN LABOUR MARKET DECISION MAKING IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Moonlighting, holding more than one job, is a significant phenomenon in the current labour markets in South Asia. As a country with rapid population ageing, Sri Lanka is facing the challenge of a shrinking labour force within the next decade and moonlighting would be a safeguard to maximize the utilization of the potential labour force of the country in the future. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors associated with moonlighting in Sri Lanka. Secondary data available from the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey 2017 conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics was used for the study. The sample size was 63,380 working-age people out of which 2,747 moonlighters were recorded in the sample from among the 32,588 employed. The Probit model was used to identify the factors associated with moonlighting of individuals allowing the selectivity adjustment for labour force participation and employment. The findings revealed that the hours’ constraint motive is still valid in the Sri Lankan context, with a significant positive relationship between underemployment in the primary job and moonlighting choice. The hourly wage rate of the primary job has a significant negative relationship with moonlighting, thus showing the importance of financial motive in moonlighting. Age, Marital status, and Gender are the other factors affecting moonlighting tendency due to financial motives. It was found that moonlighting is high among professionals and agricultural workers. Professionals are moonlighting for the purpose of human capital enhancement and the heterogeneous job motive while agricultural workers are seeking second jobs for financial and job security. Introducing employment portfolios and facilitating moonlighting among professionals will lead to an increase in the full capacity utilization of the labour force of the country in the policy aspect.