Purpose A growing number of older workers engage in multiple jobs in the context of delayed retirement initiative and the fast-growing gig economy in China. However, it remains unclear whether multiple jobs holding is beneficial to late retirees. Methods To preliminarily address this issue, this study applies the data of CHARLS-2015 to examine the effect of late retirement and multiple-job holding on mental health among older adults. Besides, instrumental variables (IVs) regression is conducted to clarify potential endogeneity problem. Results It is shown that both late retirement (coef. = - 2.726, p < 0.01) and multiple-job holding (coef. = - 1.523, p < 0.01) alleviate depression among older adults. However, multiple-job holding would weaken the relationship between late retirement and depression (coef. = 2.019, p < 0.01). Conclusion The findings suggest that although the modest engagement in late careers and multiple-job holding could benefit mental health, respectively, the overlap of them could be overburdened for older adults. Policymakers should be aware of the occupational risk of multiple-job holding when incentivizing the delayed retirement to address the population aging.
