One in Three Americans Hustles on the Side. 61% Call It Survival, Not Ambition. Read Carefully.
A LendingTree survey from March found that 1 in 3 Americans now run a side hustle. 61% of those people say their life would be unaffordable without it. The article catalogs increasingly creative income streams: waiting in lines, serving as a hired bridesmaid, renting out backyards to urbanites, making charcuterie boards, or crafting gourmet dog treats.
This is a textbook example of labor market friction meeting inflation pressure. The mechanism here is income gap diversification: when wages stagnate relative to cost of living, workers convert underutilized personal assets, time, and domestic skills into monetizable units. The lesson is that economic necessity, not entrepreneurial zeal, is driving most of this activity.
Per the LendingTree March survey cited in the article, roughly one third of Americans participate in side hustles. The piece describes individuals renting yards, waiting in lines, and producing specialty food items as representative examples.
- List five underused assets or skills you have. Time, yard space, a car, cooking ability, or a craft. Write them down. Expected outcome: a visible inventory of what you could monetize.
- Pick one and search for an existing platform or local demand for it. Try a simple Craigslist post or a neighborhood group. Expected outcome: you test whether anyone will pay before investing effort.
- Set a single price point based on what similar offerings charge and post your first listing. Expected outcome: a live offer you can iterate on based on response.