A side job, also informally called a side hustle or side gig, is an additional

job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

that a person takes in addition to their primary job in order to supplement their

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. Fo ...

. Side jobs may be done out of necessity, when one's income from their main job is insufficient to support them, or simply out of a desire to earn more income. Working a side job can also, informally, be called moonlighting, usually when it is performed after normal

working time Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regulate the work week by law, ...

. A side job can be a

full-time job A full-time job is employment in which workers work a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer. Overview Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible worker ...

part-time contract A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. They work in shifts. The shifts are often rotational. Workers are considered to be part-time if they commonly work fewer than 30 hours per week. Accor ...

, or freelance work, and a person can hold more than one side job. Side jobs gained in popularity in the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

due to

wage stagnation Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation, or, equivalently, wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages. Because it has been adjusted to account ...

and low wage growth that has not kept up with the rise in

cost of living Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a cer ...

, with nearly a third of people with side jobs requiring them to pay expenses. Nearly half of all Americans report having a side job, including 43% of full-time workers. The most common reason workers take on side jobs is to obtain additional disposable income. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 60 percent of students and graduates reported having a side job, and 43 percent required it to pay

renting Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for a ...

expenses. Millennials are the most likely to have a side job, usually to have a financial "safety net", leading to them being considered the "side hustle generation". However, they are also common as a means to pay off

student loan A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest r ...

s, as well as to leverage one's creativity in ways that would normally not be feasible in the typical workplace. When a person's primary job only provides income so that they may pursue their preferred side job, it is typically known as a "day job".

References

{{Employment Occupations Employment classifications

See also

References