Are Side Hustles here to stay in a post-pandemic world?

At the start of 2020, most people I knew were scrambling to destroy their student loan going into debt, increasing their retirement savings, or quitting a job they hate. But as the pandemic pushed the unemployment rate to an all-time high, more Americans have turned to side hustles to survive.

It’s hard to say how many Americans actually started their first stampede in 2020. But we do know that with increased demand for services like on-demand grocery delivery, the pandemic has made the stampede even more common.

As the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, I am hopeful for the future. But what will happen to the state of side hustle?

There are three reasons I’m convinced side hustles are here to stay.

1. People will continue to choose convenience

Before the pandemic hit, grocery delivery was a luxury for most Americans. Why pay so much more for groceries when you could go to the store yourself? But as soon as the pandemic hit, on-demand grocery delivery exploded.

I don’t know if you remember the early days of the pandemic when you couldn’t place a same-day grocery order. Well, Intstacart saw $700 million in orders in the first two weeks of April, an increase of 450% compared to December of the previous year.

To meet demand, Instacart has hired 300,000 new buyers between March and April. And it’s not just Instacart — DoorDash, Postmates, and Shipt are seeing above-average orders. On my site, I started to see an increase in traffic to articles about driving for delivery services, and many of my friends in the personal finance blogosphere were seeing the same thing.

Getting your groceries delivered right to your doorstep is now a matter of public safety, and at the same time, it has become one of the most popular side businesses to turn to in 2020.

I imagine the need for public safety has pushed many reluctant consumers into a new world of on-demand grocery shopping. They took a crash course in how to order online, how the apps work, and how to interact with their customers.

Early studies suggest online grocery store will keep many customers in a post-pandemic world. Ordering online isn’t just a good pandemic mitigation strategy, it’s legitimately easier and more convenient than shopping alone.

So who will meet the delivery needs? Probably secondary scammers, unless grocery stores set up their own delivery services. Even then, grocery stores may be using freelancers in the same way restaurants have embraced companies like DoorDash and Grubhub.

2. The number of freelancers started to increase before the pandemic

According to Upwork’s annual study of freelancing in America, 57 million Americans were freelancers in 2019. That’s a massive change from 2014, when there were 4 million fewer freelancers. Self-employment has become an increasingly common and respected way to earn extra money or even earn a living.

If you have marketable skills (digital marketing, copywriting, web development, etc.), freelancing can be a very lucrative side hustle.

On the other hand, freelance work allows businesses large and small to hire top talent without the costs associated with traditional employment. Freelancers are a cost effective solution for business owners.

Freelancing has died out in some industries, like creative and performing arts, during the pandemic, and that’s to be expected. But overall, freelance work remained a promising option for side work, and some freelance fields even accelerated during the pandemic, such as mathematical modeling, web and game development, and e-commerce specialists.

I expect to see changes in self-employment eventually after the pandemic. States like New York and New Jersey have seen legislation over the past two years trying to protect the rights of gig workers, and you can’t forget what happened with California’s Prop 22.

While it’s unclear exactly how the pandemic will change self-employment in the long run, we can look to what happened during the 2008 financial crisis for clues for the near future. During the recession, cash-strapped companies began to rely heavily on freelancers because they were cheaper than W-2 employees. This has helped freelance work become a respected and viable career path.

3. People will have to catch up with their finances

The reality of this pandemic is that unemployment is at an all-time high. 900,000 Americans filed for unemployment in January and 18.4 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment benefits from the government.

People find all sorts of ways to squeeze their budget because of job loss. The Pew Research Center found that 2.6 million young adults moved back in with their parents in 2020. The last time we saw this kind of spike was during the Great Depression.

Reducing your living expenses is a great way to tighten your budget if you’ve lost your job, and that’s advice I’ve given my readers. But the truth is that eventually you get to the point where you have exhausted all your options.

One strategy is to stop prioritizing debt repayment and focus on building savings. Focusing on saving rather than debt isn’t conventional personal finance advice, but it’s understandable with so much professional uncertainty.

What happens after you’ve reduced your budget as much as possible and exhausted your savings? It’s a dangerous path that can eventually lead to a lot of debt, and we can’t forget student loans hanging out in limbo right now too.

However, one of the best alternatives to meet a short-term need and a long-term recovery is to find ways to earn extra money, i.e. the side hustle.

I saw a major change in the ranking of content on my site. Readers want to know more about how to make money and less about budgeting. That makes a lot of sense right now, and that’s why there’s increased interest in hustles like food delivery services, conducting online surveys, running Facebook ads for small businesses, and freelance.

It’s a scary thought, but since it’s should take several years before the economy recovers from the pandemic-related job loss, Americans will be scrambling to catch up on their finances for years to come.

Final Thoughts

A few years ago, side hustling was considered this brand new concept reserved for Millennials. That’s how we got all our avocado lattes and toast, right? But the reality is that people have always found ways to make extra money.

Whether you’re determined to get rid of your mortgage, pay off your student loan, or retire early, people have always been motivated to scramble.

I’ve been writing about side hustles on my blog for five years because I rightfully believe they offer more options than budgeting alone when you want to move big bucks.

Side hustle helps when you’re out of work or trying to get back on track with your finances, but the side hustle isn’t new.

We are likely to see an evolution in the types of hustles and how companies deal with new forms of work (telecommuting, freelancing, etc.). And I expect that will just keep the side hustle alive in the future.