"alternative occupation" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to an occupation that someone has taken up or thought of taking up in lieu of their regular, primary occupation. For example, "After leaving his job as a software engineer, Jim considered getting an alternative occupation as a teacher."
The interaction between seaweed farming as an alternative occupation and fisher numbers in the Central Philippines.
After the self-inflicted Bercow shambles in the morning, Michael Gove had been found an alternative occupation: William Hague had been held back until he had calmed down a bit.
In San Pedro, baseball became not only a beloved pastime but the one and only alternative occupation for a boy from a poor family — the classic means by which sports flourish in ethnic or national groups.
It thus rejected the proposition that "the guidelines provide adequate evidence of a claimant's ability to perform a specific alternative occupation," id., at 53, and remanded for the Secretary to put into evidence "particular types of jobs suitable to the capabilities of Ms. Campbell," id., at 54.
In 1882 Lady Brabazon, later the Countess of Meath, set up a project to provide alternative occupation for non-able-bodied inmates, known as the Brabazon scheme.
There are few alternative occupations".
We also show that full-time fishermen and those who have no alternative occupations expend the greatest fishing effort.
As Irving Berlin names alternative occupations to the theater in "There's No Business Like Show Business," a butcher and a baker lead the list.
But I was also otherwise occupied – working and preparing for the trip to Oslo – and the lack of alternative occupations for those rioting and stealing must take some part in the explanation of the disorder.
The report also said that women's traditional livelihoods as subsistence farmers or small producers have been undermined by foreign subsidized agriculture or foreign imports but, as women, they face cultural barriers when looking for alternative occupations.
The moderately higher reporting levels of semi-professional footballers in this study could be due, in part, to this cohort possessing alternative occupations, employment opportunities and sources of income.
