More Than 30% of Americans Think They'll Always Need a 'Side Hustle'

By Melvin Backman, Quartz (TNS)

Working one job is becoming an increasingly difficult way to fund the average American lifestyle.

Financial advice site Bankrate recently revealed the results of a poll conducted by the firm YouGov, which found that one-third of all adults in the U.S. are taking on second-job “side hustles” in order to pay bills and fund discretionary extras.

“More than 1 in 3 (36 percent) side hustlers use side hustle income to pay for regular living expenses, like rent and groceries, and 32 percent of side hustlers think they will always need that work to make ends meet,” the site noted in commentary accompanying the poll. “Even as inflation cools, the high percentage of people with a side hustle shows many Americans don’t feel they can sustain their lifestyles on one income alone.”

The site did not say explictly which side hustles people are taking on, explaining that they defined the term broadly as “any extra income someone earns on the side of their main source of income.” Generationally speaking, though, Gen Z tends to be the most likely to have one: Nearly half of them responded that they had a side hustle. That number shrinks with older generations.

Perhaps more sobering, on the other hand, is the percentage of people who felt that they would always need a side hustle to make sure all their financial needs are met. Though Gen Z was the most optimistic that they wouldn’t always need another source of income, older generations were far less certain.

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