Moonlighting on the rise for aussies

Australians are well on the way to becoming the most entrepreneurial nation on earth, with one in five (21%) people saying they moonlight in another job, that is conduct another business on the side, outside of their day job, according to a survey by Talent2, Australia?s leading human resources and recruitment firm.

Men appear to have a higher entrepreneurial streak with 23% of males moonlighting compared to 17% of females.

40% of moonlighters come from Tasmania, followed by the ACT (28%), SA (26%), QLD (23%), VIC (22%) NSW (21%) and the WA (19%).

Laura Mabikafola of Talent2 says that 50% of moonlighters say they started their business-on-the-side because of the allure of more money, 16% because they are bored at their current job and 15% to escape their current job.

"Moonlighting is a great way to establish a new business. You can use funding from your salary at your day-job to fund your side business, thereby reducing the financial risk."

"Businesses should not be afraid of employees that moonlight. 50% of moonlighters say that they still like their current job, but that the allure of more money was just too hard to resist and 55% of moonlighters say that it was never their original intention to resign from their day job once it became financially viable to do so. "

"Turning a hobby into a business is how some of the greatest organisations in the world got started, Microsoft as just one example."