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2021: Year of the Heart Hustle

Moving the hustle from side to center…

Ruth Glendinning
7 min readApr 3, 2021

2020: Year of the Side Hustle

According to a recent survey by credit-building platform, Self, just over half of Americans plan to start a side hustle as a direct result of the pandemic. The numbers get really interesting when you break them down by age, too. The majority of Millennials (around 70%) plan to start a side hustle, while only a few — around 20% — of Boomers have the same idea.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you already know the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on the economy. Still, it’s worth taking a second look at the numbers. By May 2020, after everything shut down, the number of unemployed people in the U.S. shot up even higher than figures during the Great Depression. It ranged higher than 14 million unemployed people, compared to the Great Depression’s peak of 8.8 million unemployed. The unemployment rate at its peak in 2020 was 16%.

Today the economy is reopening and the unemployment rate has gone back down, but still stands twice as high as normal — 8% — as of August 2020. Even if you are lucky enough to be back at work today, chances are good that you’re still not earning as much as you were before. Your hours might’ve been reduced, you might’ve missed out on pay raises, or you might’ve suffered a pay cut. ~ Why It’s the Year of the Side Hustle

What is a Side Hustle and Why is it so Prevalent?

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Ruth Glendinning
Ruth Glendinning

Written by Ruth Glendinning

Community Architect // Published Poet // Future Story Lab // Anti-Fragile Playbook // S.L.O.W. Tech // #womenswork Buy my book! https://a.co/d/5MG47Di

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