Side-hustles are small-scale entrepreneurial activities undertaken alongside formal employment. Side-hustles are widely promoted as a solution to youth underemployment and as a pathway to financial independence and meaningful work. Yet little is known about the characteristics, motivations and outcomes of young people who pursue them. 

This report presents findings from the first year of the Youth Side-Hustles Project, the first project to explore the characteristics and experiences of young people with side-hustles. It draws on a national survey of 1,497 young people aged 18–34 and qualitative interviews. 

The findings complicate optimistic policy assumptions about entrepreneurship as a universal fix to youth labour market challenges, challenging dominant narratives of hustle culture. Rather than treating side-hustles as a solution to precarity, the report argues for greater recognition of the social, financial and gendered conditions under which side-hustles emerge. 

The report calls for policy approaches that centre secure, meaningful employment and critically assess the costs and limits of entrepreneurialism for young people navigating an increasingly fragmented labour market.

Key findings

• While passion and enjoyment are primary motivations, side-hustles often rely on resources such as stable employment, savings or family support.
• The typical side-hustler earns $200 per week, invests their own money and works 11 hours weekly, often including unpaid labour.
• Women are more likely to have a side-hustle than men, but face a 67% gender earnings gap and greater unpaid work burdens.
• Despite modest earnings, most side-hustlers express high satisfaction with the autonomy, flexibility and skills their side-hustles provide.
• Few view side-hustles as a route to secure employment.