WOMEN POPPING UP IN MOONLIGHT; MULTIPLE JOBS A COMMON FATE ON SEARCH FOR FULL-TIME WORK.

Byline: Carol Kleiman Chicago Tribune 

Julia H. Talbot, a 30-year-old consultant to nonprofit agencies, gives a new spin to moonlighting.

Moonlighting usually means holding down two jobs at once, traditionally one full-time job and one part-time job.

But from February to August this year, Talbot had four part-time jobs. And all the while, she was searching for full-time employment.

I don't know if the economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics know about Talbot, who worked for a quartet of nonprofit agencies, but she was one of thousands of U.S. women who increasingly are moonlighting.

John F. Stinson Jr., a Labor Department economist writing in the department's Monthly Labor Review, reports that moonlighting by women has been on the move upward for more than two decades.

Between 1970 and '80, the figure rose to 1.5 million moonlighters from 600,000. By 1989, there were 3.1 million women working day and night. And last year, 3.6 million women - 47 percent of all multiple-job holders - decided that moonlighting became them.

The statistics show that 6.2 percent of women and 6.1 percent of men have more than one job or business, including part-time, evening or weekend work. All told, 7.8 million U.S. workers have more than one job.

There are no numbers on whether this is by choice, but if the increase is similar to the increase in women's part-time work (in only one job), it may be that many workers want one full-time job but can't find one.

Talbot began what I call ``multiple, multiple'' job arrangements after being laid off from her full-time job with a nonprofit agency.

At first, she worked for an executive search firm, then for a social service agency, did filing for a retired executive and did grant writing for another nonprofit agency.

``But I finally ended up with four different jobs at one time,'' Talbot said cheerily. ``I was hired back as a consultant by my former full-time employer, worked for a settlement house, did research for one nonprofit agency and did grant writing for another.''

She estimates she earned $3,500 less a year than she did in one full-time job and had to pay for her own health insurance and other benefits. Talbot has a bachelor's degree in medieval history from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Maine in Orono. That's why she was surprised when she was laid off.

``I wasn't expecting it,'' she said. ``But I knew what to do: When I was a research assistant in the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development in St. Paul, I also did grant writing, cut and sold fabric, and worked for a butcher during deer season - all at the same time.''

Talbot says compared to most women who moonlight, she knew she had a ``pretty good setup, because I did most of my work from home, though I felt as if I lived in my car the first four months.''

She's atypical in other ways: The highest rate for moonlighting is among women ages 20 to 24, as much as a decade younger than Talbot. Also, married women are somewhat less likely to hold multiple jobs than women who are unmarried; Talbot is married to Robert Zofkie. And many of the women who hold more than one job have families to support; Talbot's husband is a structural engineer, and they have no children.

She does compare with two-thirds of female moonlighters who also work in services and retail trade, rather than in the goods-producing sector. Women and men most likely to moonlight are in public administration, security services, education and health care.

``I felt very lucky (despite having to moonlight),'' said Talbot. ``I'm relatively young, without any major health problems or great debt. I worked full time for a great boss who made it her business to help me out whenever she could after I was laid off. I have no dependents and two degrees.''

She adds that although moonlighting was hard work, ``I was able to get a vision of the nonprofit arena that I would not otherwise have been exposed to.''

In August a full-time job came up: Talbot is now a government grant specialist in the Mayor's Office of Employment and Training.

That women increasingly moonlight challenges me to create a list of skills that are transferable to multiple jobs:

Teachers: Can work nights as baby-sitters.

Nurses: Can serve as psychotherapists, particularly for doctors.

Public administrators: Can do organizational management, showing how to cut through red tape.

Television anchors: Can be cosmetologists, demonstrating how to slather on makeup.

These second jobs should be a snap: Many of these professionals already do them.