Side Hustle Statistics (2026)

There is no single official count of side hustles, so the answer depends on which measure you use. The narrowest and longest-running is the Bureau of Labor Statistics count of multiple jobholders: 9.0 million people in September 2026, or 5.5% of everyone with a job (BLS table A-16).

Broader measures land much higher. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), 20% of working adults said they had more than one job in the prior month, including part-time, evening or weekend work. Bankrate's June 2025 survey, a private poll, found 27% of adults had a side hustle, defined as extra money earned beyond a main source of income.

In the 2025 annual average, 8.8 million people held two or more jobs, up from 8.43 million in 2024. That is a multiple jobholding rate of 5.4%, up from 5.2% (BLS CPS table 36). The figure comes from the Current Population Survey, the monthly household survey behind the unemployment rate.

The 2025 average covers 11 months. The October 2025 survey was not collected during the federal government shutdown, so BLS warns the 2025 annual figures are not strictly comparable with other years.

BLS has measured multiple jobholding every month since January 1994. The seasonally adjusted rate peaked at 6.5% in November 1996 and spent most of the late 1990s near 6%. It drifted down through the 2000s and bottomed out near 4.7% to 4.8% in the early 2010s (see the chart below).

The pandemic produced the sharpest drop on record. The rate fell from 5.2% in January 2020 to 4.0% in April and May 2020, and the count fell from 8.22 million to 5.38 million in three months as the service jobs that many people hold on the side disappeared. It took until mid-2023 for the rate to get back above 5%, and it has stayed between 5.0% and 5.7% since.

Because the workforce is larger than in the 1990s, today's lower rate still produces more people. The seasonally adjusted count reached 9.29 million in November 2025, the highest month in the series, at a rate of 5.7%. In September 2026 it stood at 8.99 million seasonally adjusted, the second-highest reading on record.

The not seasonally adjusted figures show the same direction over the past year: 9.0 million multiple jobholders in September 2026, up from 8.79 million in September 2025 (see the table below). The increase came entirely from women, whose count rose to 4.99 million while men's fell to 4.01 million.

Women are more likely to work more than one job. In 2025, 5.9% of employed women held multiple jobs compared with 4.9% of men, and women made up 4.57 million of the 8.8 million multiple jobholders, or 52% (see the table below). In September 2026 the gap was wider: 6.4% for women and 4.7% for men.

The gap is largest among younger and unmarried workers. Never-married women had a 6.5% rate in 2025 against 4.4% for never-married men, and widowed, divorced or separated women had a 7.0% rate against 4.8% for men. Among married people with a spouse present, the rates were the same for both sexes at 5.2%.

By race and ethnicity, Black workers had the highest rate at 6.6% in 2025, up from 6.1% in 2024, with Black women at 7.1%. White workers were at 5.3%, Asian workers at 3.9%, and Hispanic or Latino workers at 3.8%.

Second jobs are most common in the prime working years. Workers ages 25 to 54 had a 5.7% multiple jobholding rate in 2025 and accounted for 6.03 million of the 8.8 million people with more than one job, about 68% of the total (see the chart below).

Rates fall with age after that, to 4.8% for ages 55 to 64 and 4.2% for those 65 and older, about 478,000 people. Teenagers have the lowest rate, 4.0%. Women ages 20 to 24 stand out at 6.5%, compared with 4.5% for men of the same age.

The typical arrangement is a full-time main job with a part-time job on top. In 2025, 5.04 million multiple jobholders, about 57% of the total, worked full time at their primary job and part time at their second (see the table below).

Another 2.23 million, about a quarter, stitched together two part-time jobs. This pattern is much more common among women (1.45 million) than men (779,000). Only 417,000 people worked two full-time jobs, and 1.04 million had hours that varied on one of their jobs.

The Federal Reserve's survey points the same way. Of the workers who had more than one job and worked 35 or more hours in total, 86% worked at least 35 hours at their main job alone (SHED 2025 appendix).

BLS does not publish a regular breakdown of second jobs by industry, but the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program has measured it from employer payroll records. In that data, 16.8% of second jobs were in health care and social assistance, 16.7% in accommodation and food services, and 10.8% in administrative, support and waste management services (see the table below).

LEHD also tells a different story about the trend. Its rate rose from 6.8% in the second quarter of 1996 to 7.8% in the first quarter of 2018, averaging 7.2%, while the CPS rate fell over the same years. The Census Bureau says there is no simple explanation for the gap. LEHD found the rise was driven by women, whose rate climbed from 7.5% to 9.1% while men's moved from 6.3% to 6.6%.

Second jobs are a meaningful share of income for the people who hold them. In the first quarter of 2018, LEHD multiple jobholders earned an average of $9,770 from their main job and $3,780 from all secondary jobs, a total of $13,550. Secondary jobs supplied 28% of total earnings (Census Bureau).

That share was above 25% at every point in the earnings distribution, and above 30% for multiple jobholders at or below the 18th percentile. Even the top tenth, earning $28,300 or more a quarter, got about a fourth of their pay from second jobs. People with a single stable job earned more on average, $15,750 a quarter, which the researchers attribute to differences in age, sex and industry.

Private surveys that ask about side hustles directly catch more people, including those selling things online or freelancing in ways the CPS may not count as a job. Bankrate's 2025 survey, run by YouGov with 2,616 adults in June 2025, found 27% had a side hustle. That was the lowest share since 2017 (19%) and down from 36% in 2024 and 39% in 2023 (see the chart below).

Bankrate attributed the 2025 drop to a strong job market and cooling inflation. The survey uses a non-probability online sample, so its level should be read as an estimate and not compared directly with the BLS rate.

Younger adults side hustle the most in Bankrate's survey: 34% of Gen Z (ages 18 to 28) and 31% of millennials (29 to 44), against 23% of Gen X (45 to 60) and 22% of baby boomers (61 to 79). Parents of children under 18 reported a 34% rate, compared with 28% for non-parents and 23% for parents of adult children.

Education raised the rate: 32% of postgraduate degree holders and 30% of four-year graduates had a side hustle, against 23% of those with a high school diploma or less. These are private survey figures; the BLS does not publish multiple jobholding by education in its annual tables.

Most side hustles bring in modest sums. Bankrate's side hustlers earned a median of $200 a month in 2025, down from $250 in 2024, and an average of $885, pulled up by a minority of high earners (see the table below). Some 58% earned more than $100 a month, 25% more than $500, and 14% more than $1,000, while 28% earned $1 to $50.

Men reported far more than women: an average of $1,195 a month against $611, and a median of $247 against $148. Among Gen Z side hustlers, 45% earned more than $100 a month, compared with 59% to 63% of the older generations, and 40% earned $1 to $50.

Asked to match their side hustle to 12 industries, Bankrate respondents most often named online sales (15%) and professional or business services such as freelance writing, design or consulting (14%). Food delivery and crafts followed at 9% each, then pet care (7%), teaching or tutoring (6%), landscaping or home repair, child care and health care (4% each), fitness and ridesharing (3% each), and home rental (2%). Another 43% said none of the listed industries fit.

Platform driving and delivery, often the image of a side hustle, is a small slice of it. Our gig economy statistics page covers app-based work in detail, and self-employment statistics covers people whose own business is their main job.

The Federal Reserve last asked about these informal earnings in its 2024 survey. Twenty percent of adults earned money from a gig activity in the prior month. The most common was selling things (13%), mostly items they had previously owned (10%), with 4% reselling items bought for that purpose and 3% selling things they made. Another 2% offered short-term rentals and 9% did short-term tasks, including 4% who found the work through an app or website (SHED 2024).

This was side income in the plainest sense. Ninety-six percent of people doing gig activities spent under 35 hours a week on them, 70% spent under five hours, and only 21% called the activity their main job. Participation was highest among students (30%), adults 18 to 29 (26%), and parents of children under 13 (26%), and lowest among adults 60 and older (12%) (see the chart below).

Rising prices push some people toward more work. In the 2025 SHED, 17% of adults said they worked more or got another job in the prior 12 months because of higher prices, down one point from 2024 and 2022. Fewer, 7%, asked for a raise (SHED 2025). Among adults who started a new job in the past year, 14% kept the same main job and started a second one.

Side hustlers in Bankrate's survey were split between want and need. In 2025, 41% put some of the money toward discretionary spending, up from 37% in 2024 and 27% in 2023, while 35% used some for regular living expenses, 28% saved some and 20% paid down debt. Twenty-nine percent said they would always need a side hustle to make ends meet, rising to 39% among Black side hustlers, and 16% hoped it would become their main income.

Some side income does end up invested. For people who move part of it into a brokerage account, Walnut, an AI investing app, can read a connected account and show how that money is doing.

People who earn money on the side are, on average, under more financial pressure than those who do not. In the 2024 SHED, 65% of adults doing gig activities said they were doing okay or living comfortably, against 75% of those who did none, and 35% said they were worse off than a year earlier, against 27% (see the table below).

Among gig participants, 31% said they would have trouble making ends meet without that income, 49% wished the pay were more consistent, and 28% wished it came with benefits such as health insurance. The most agreed-with statement was that they were their own boss, at 61%, and 55% said it let them work flexible hours.

Irregular pay is a related strain. In the 2025 SHED, 58% of self-employed adults said their income varied month to month and 22% had trouble paying bills because of it, compared with 28% and 10% of people who worked for someone else.

Side work continues past retirement for some. In the 2025 SHED, 27% of adults considered themselves retired, and 16% of retirees had done some work for pay or profit in the prior month, 11% part time and 4% full time (see the table below).

Working retirees more often cited nonfinancial reasons (67%), such as a sense of purpose or social connection, than financial ones (52%). Of the financial reasons, the most common was wanting extra spending money (38%), followed by needing money to make ends meet (30%) and saving more or delaying Social Security (27%). Sixteen percent worked to keep health insurance.

The 5.5% BLS rate, the 20% SHED figure and Bankrate's 27% measure different things. The CPS counts people who held two or more jobs in a specific reference week and asks the question in a structured interview. The SHED asks working adults whether they had more than one job at any point in the past month, including evening or weekend work, which catches occasional work the CPS misses.

Side hustle surveys go further, counting any extra money beyond a main income, such as selling used items or freelancing a few hours a month. The SHED's own work shows how much this matters: 28% of adults who did gig activities in 2024 told the survey they had not worked for pay or profit in the prior month, which suggests many people do not think of selling or odd jobs as work.

Side income is taxable whether or not a form arrives. Payment apps and online marketplaces must send a Form 1099-K when payments for goods or services exceed $20,000 across more than 200 transactions, though they may send one for less, and card processors report direct card payments with no minimum. The IRS says all such income must be reported regardless (IRS).

A side hustle run as self-employment also owes self-employment tax once net earnings reach $400. The rate is 15.3%, made up of 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare, with the employer-equivalent half deductible when calculating adjusted gross income (IRS). A second job on a payroll has these taxes withheld like any other job.