Side hustles have become a real part of American work life. The data behind this shift is messier than most headlines let on. This guide breaks down the latest side hustle statistics across growth, income, demographics and industry so you can cut through the noise.
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Side hustles have become a real part of American work life. The data behind this shift is messier than most headlines let on. This guide breaks down the latest side hustle statistics across growth, income, demographics and industry so you can cut through the noise.
Author
Co-author
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Leah Maglalang
Business Coordinator UAE
Side hustle culture in America has gone through real shifts over the past few years. The numbers tell an interesting story, and they don’t all point in the same direction.
Survey data shows a bumpy ride inside hustle participation since 2022. Different sources land on different numbers, but the overall pattern is hard to ignore.
Year | Participation Rate |
2022 | ~44% |
2023 | 39% |
2024 | 36% |
2025 | 27% – 47% |
2026 | 33% |
The 2025 data is where things get messy. Bankrate put the number at just 27%, while Intuit QuickBooks came in at 47%. That’s a 20-point gap between two credible sources. The difference likely comes down to how each survey defines “side hustle income.” LendingTree’s 2026 report settled at 33%, which sits closer to the lower end of that range.
Before 2020, side hustling was already a real thing for millions of Americans. Around 37% of side-hustlers back in 2019 relied on that income for basic expenses. Then the pandemic hit.
The 2020 to 2021 period saw a clear spike in gig work and self-employment. Economic disruption pushed people to pick up extra income fast. Bankrate data backs this up: 52% of side-hustlers as of post-2022 had started their hustle within the prior two years.
After that surge, things started to cool off. As job markets bounced back and inflation eased, fewer people felt the urgent push to take on extra work. Bankrate tracked a drop from 39% in 2023 down to 27% by 2025. LendingTree shows a similar slide from 44% in 2022 to 33% in 2026.
That said, QuickBooks sees almost half of Americans still earning side-hustle income in 2025. So the picture isn’t fully clear cut.
Looking at the full 2022 to 2026 window, the dominant trend leans toward a pullback in participation.
Year Span | Shift |
2022 → 2023 | Down ~5 pts |
2023 → 2024 | Down ~3 pts |
2024 → 2025 | Down 9 pts (Bankrate) |
2024 → 2025 | Up 11 pts (QuickBooks) |
2025 → 2026 | Down 5 pts |
The sharpest single-year drop in Bankrate’s data came between 2024 and 2025, a 9-point fall. QuickBooks flips that narrative entirely, showing an 11-point jump in the same window. Both are legitimate surveys. The divergence points to a real challenge: how you ask the question shapes the answer you get.
The compound annual growth rate shifts depending on which dataset you trust.
LendingTree’s figures suggest a steady annual decline of around 6 to 7% over four years. QuickBooks data flips that to roughly 9% annual growth across a shorter window.
For journalists and bloggers covering this space, it’s worth citing the source alongside any growth figure. The number alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
Despite the recent dip in participation, forward-looking data suggests side hustles aren’t going away. QuickBooks’ 2026 survey found that 40% of Americans plan to start a new business or side hustle this year. Another 20% plan to grow what they already have.
Gen Z leads that charge. Half of Gen Z respondents say they plan to launch a new hustle or business in 2026.
On the earnings side, average monthly side income reached around $1,242 in 2026, up slightly from $1,215. That said, the median tells a different story. Bankrate data puts typical monthly earnings closer to $200. Most side hustles are modest income boosts, not business replacements.
Resources: LendingTree, Bankrate, ZipRecruiter, Intuit QuickBooks
Who actually has a side hustle? The data breaks down in some telling ways across generations, gender and employment type.
Younger generations lead the pack by a wide margin.
Generation | Participation Rate |
Gen Z | 53% – 56% |
Millennials | 50% – 54% |
Gen X | ~40% |
Baby Boomers | ~24% |
Gen Z tops every survey. Bankrate puts them at 53% and QuickBooks at 56% for 2025. Millennials follow close behind at 50% to 54%. Gen X comes in at around 40%, and Baby Boomers trail at just 24%.
The gap between the youngest and oldest cohorts is striking. Gen Z is more than twice as likely as Boomers to run a side hustle. Part of that comes down to digital fluency. Part of it is financial pressure.
Age group data lines up closely with the generational breakdown above.
Age Group | Participation Rate |
18–27 | 48% |
28–43 | 44% |
44–59 | 33% |
60+ | 23% |
Bankrate’s 2024 figures show a clear downward slope as age goes up. The 18 to 27 bracket comes in at 48%, while adults over 60 sit at just 23%. Side hustle activity drops off consistently across each age group. Younger workers are simply more likely to take on extra income streams.
Men edge out women in side hustle participation, and the earnings gap is even wider.
Category | Men | Women |
Participation | 43% | 35% |
Avg. Monthly Income | ~$989 | ~$603 |
Bankrate’s 2023 data shows 43% of men reported a side hustle versus 35% of women. That 8-point gap in participation becomes a much bigger divide when you look at income. Men brought in roughly $989 per month on average compared to around $603 for women.
The gender pay gap doesn’t disappear in the gig world. It follows workers right into their side income.
Clean national data on side hustle rates by education level is hard to come by. What does exist points to a specific pattern among college graduates.
Bankrate found that 26% of degree-holders with side hustles put that income toward debt repayment. That compares to 20% across all side-hustlers. It suggests college graduates often take on side work to manage student debt rather than purely for extra spending money.
Employment status shapes side hustle behavior in some surprising ways.
Group | Rate |
All U.S. workers | 35% |
First-time job seekers | 59.2% |
Experienced workers | 28.4% |
Households over $150K | 44.8% |
ZipRecruiter’s 2023 data shows that 59.2% of first-time job seekers hold a side hustle. That’s almost double the rate for experienced workers at 28.4%. Side gigs act as an entry point into the workforce for people who haven’t built up a traditional work history yet.
High earners also show up in the data. Households bringing in over $150K annually had a 44.8% side hustle rate, well above lower income brackets at around 30 to 31%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics adds another layer: roughly 8.9 million Americans worked multiple jobs in 2025, which works out to about 5.4% of the employed workforce. That figure uses a stricter definition, but it underlines how common it is to hold more than one income source.
Resources: ZipRecruiter, LendingTree, BLS
As of May 2026, around 8.4 million Americans held two jobs, which works out to roughly 5.2% of the employed workforce. That figure undercounts independent gig workers who don’t show up in traditional job records.
State-level breakdowns for “side hustles” specifically don’t exist in any official dataset. What does exist is historical multiple-jobholding data by state, and it shows a consistent geographic pattern over time. Rural states in the Upper Midwest and Mountain West tend to lead, while coastal and heavily urbanized states fall toward the bottom.
Rural areas actually outpace urban ones when it comes to holding multiple jobs. Research on multiple-jobholding consistently finds that states with the highest rates are more rural than average.
Farmers and agricultural workers often take a second job to cover income gaps between seasons or during periods of low commodity prices. That pattern drives rural numbers up in ways that don’t show up in city-focused surveys.
Urban side hustles do exist at scale, but city workers with strong primary salaries have less financial pressure to add a second income stream. The gig economy is more visible in cities, yet the raw multiple-jobholding rate stays lower there.
Side hustle income gets talked up a lot, but the actual earnings data tell a more modest story. A few people make great money. Most don’t.
Bankrate’s mid-2025 survey put average monthly side hustle income at around $885, a slight dip from $891 in 2024. The median sat at just $200. SurveyMonkey data matched that figure almost exactly.
Metric | Amount |
Mean (Bankrate 2025) | ~$885/mo |
Median (Bankrate 2025) | ~$200/mo |
Mean (QuickBooks 2025) | ~$2,038/mo |
QuickBooks came in much higher at $2,038 per month, but that survey likely captured more full-time independent workers rather than casual side-hustlers. The gap between mean and median across all surveys makes one thing clear: a small group of high earners pulls the average up while most people take home very little.
Translated into annual figures, most side hustlers bring in under $5,000 a year from their extra work. That’s a meaningful supplement for some households, but not a business replacement.
At the other end of the spectrum, skilled freelancers tell a very different story. Upwork reports U.S. freelancers average around $99,230 per year. MBO Partners found 5.6 million independent workers cleared over $100,000 in 2025.
Worker Type | Avg. Annual Income |
Typical side hustler | Under $5,000 |
U.S. freelancers (Upwork) | ~$99,230 |
High earners (MBO) | Over $100,000 |
The takeaway is straightforward. Side hustle income depends almost entirely on the type of work. Skilled, specialized gigs can generate real money. Most casual side work stays modest.
The income distribution skews heavily toward the low end.
Monthly Earnings | Share of Hustlers |
$0 – $100 | ~50% |
$101 – $500 | ~35% |
$501 – $1,000 | ~20–25% |
Over $1,000 | ~10% |
About half of all side hustlers bring in $100 or less per month. Only around 10% cross the $1,000 mark. For journalists covering the “side hustle economy,” that distribution is worth leading with. The headline income figures rarely reflect what the average person actually earns.
Not all side gigs pay equally. Professional and skill-based work pulls ahead of platform gig jobs by a wide margin.
Category | Estimated Earnings |
Freelance/consulting | ~$99K/yr avg |
Grocery delivery | $18–$26/hr |
Food delivery | $13–$22/hr |
QuickBooks found 30% of side hustlers sell goods online and 22% do freelance professional services. Bankrate puts online sales at 15% and business or professional services at 14%. These higher-skill categories tend to generate far more income than delivery work or casual odd jobs.
Side hustle earnings haven’t moved much. Bankrate tracked a small drop in average monthly income from $891 in 2024 to $885 in 2025. The median fell from $250 to $200 over the same period.
Upwork projects continued growth for skilled freelancers specifically. But for the typical side hustler, earnings have stayed flat and even dipped slightly. The income ceiling for most side gigs hasn’t risen, and inflation has made those flat numbers worth less in real terms.
Resources: Bankrate, SurveyMonkey, QuickBooks, Upwork, MBO Partners, Side Hustle Nation, ZipRecruiter
Side hustle work spans a wide range of industries. Freelancing, gig platforms, e-commerce, content creation and professional services each draw a distinct slice of the workforce.
Freelancing is the largest and fastest-growing segment of side hustle work. Upwork’s 2025 data shows 39% of U.S. workers freelanced that year, up 4 percentage points from 2024. Together, they brought in roughly $1.5 trillion in 2024.
MBO Partners reports that 36% of traditional employees now carry a freelance side gig alongside their primary job. By 2027, Upwork projects around 86.5 million U.S. freelancers, which would represent about 51% of the total workforce.
Skilled freelancers also tend to out-earn their full-time peers. Upwork found that full-time freelancers’ median salaries rival or exceed many traditional salaried positions.
The gig economy operates at a different scale. An estimated 73 million Americans, roughly 45% of the workforce, took part in some form of gig work in 2026. The sector as a whole reached around $455 billion that year.
Food delivery alone accounts for over $75 billion of that market. About 44% of gig workers treat platform work as a side hustle rather than a primary income source.
Platform Type | Hourly Net Pay |
Food delivery | $13–$22/hr |
Grocery delivery | $18–$26/hr |
Cross-platform work is common. Close to half of Lyft drivers also drive for Uber. Despite that hustle, earnings from gig driving stay moderate for most workers.
Online selling has become one of the most popular side hustle categories. QuickBooks found 30% of side hustlers sell products through online marketplaces or social platforms. Bankrate puts that figure at 15%, and Self Financial’s survey lands at around 13.5%.
The range in estimates reflects how differently surveys define “online selling.” It can cover anything from flipping items on eBay to running a small Etsy shop or building out an Amazon storefront. Growth in this space has picked up, but income levels vary widely and most sellers self-report their numbers.
Content creation has turned into a legitimate side hustle category in its own right. MBO Partners estimated around 10.1 million independent content creators in the U.S. in 2025, a 13% jump in a single year.
Creators bring in income through ad revenue, brand deals, and digital products across YouTube, Twitch, podcasts and social media. The top tier earns tens of millions annually according to Statista. Most creators, though, earn modestly.
Creator Segment | Income Level |
Top earners | Tens of millions |
Majority | Modest income |
Total U.S. creators | ~10.1 million |
The segment skews young and keeps growing fast. For reporters covering Gen Z work trends, the creator economy is one of the most active spaces to watch.
Traditional professional side gigs, think freelance writing, graphic design, accounting and consulting, remain among the highest-paying categories. QuickBooks found 22% of side hustlers offer some form of freelance professional service. Bankrate’s data puts that at around 14%.
In dollar terms, this segment leads the pack. ZipRecruiter’s May 2026 data shows freelancers in consulting, design and coding average roughly $99,000 per year. Upwork adds another data point: 78% of CEOs say top freelancers deliver more value than regular full-time employees.
The side hustle landscape in America is anything but simple. Participation rates shift depending on who you ask. Earnings vary wildly based on the type of work. Younger generations lead the charge while regional and gender gaps persist.
The median tells a very different story than the mean. The source shapes the stat. And the real side hustle economy lives somewhere between the hype and the hard data.
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