Will Side Hustles Be Harder to Get in 2023?

There's reason to believe they might be.

These days, a lot of people are having trouble making ends meet due to rampant inflation. If you're tired of seeing your credit card balance soar, you may be at the point where you're willing to take on a second job to boost your income.

Even if money isn't tight, a side hustle could still benefit you financially. It could give you the freedom to spend more on leisure, pad your savings, or meet other goals, like saving to buy a house.

But if you're at all interested in a side hustle, you may want to try to land one sooner rather than later. There's reason to believe side hustles will be harder to get in 2023, and you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to line one up.

Why landing a side gig could be trickier next year

For months on end, economists have been sounding warnings about a potential recession. The Federal Reserve has gotten very aggressive with its interest rate hikes in an effort to slow the pace of inflation. Its hope is that as borrowing gets more expensive, consumer spending will start to decline, thereby narrowing the gap between supply and demand that caused inflation to skyrocket in the first place.

But what may happen is that consumer spending declines a lot, thereby spurring a recession in 2023. And if that situation comes to be, individuals and businesses alike might do their best to cut back on costs.

As such, you may have a harder time getting a side hustle next year. And so if you're serious about wanting to boost your income, you may want to line up a gig now.

Now you may be thinking, "But won't that gig just go away next year if things really do take a turn for the worse?" And the answer? Not necessarily.

Let's say you start a side gig where you offer up your services as a housekeeper or babysitter/parents' helper a few nights a week. Once your clients come to rely on you, they may have a hard time cutting ties even if a recession hits. But if you first launch your gig once economic conditions are bad, clients might hesitate to hire you in the first place.

Similarly, let's say you pick up a side gig working weekend shifts at a local store. If you prove yourself to be a reliable employee, the business owner you work for might stretch their budget to keep you around even if a recession hits and revenue starts to decline. But that business owner may be less likely to hire you if things have already slowed down.

Don't wait

We don't know where things are going to land economy-wise in 2023. Although experts have been warning of a recession, a full-fledged downturn isn't guaranteed.

But if you're serious about getting a side hustle, it does pay to line up that work sooner rather than later. That way, if things take a turn for the worse, you'll have some degree of staying power in the context of that gig. And even if your side gig ends up going away, you'll at least have gotten the benefit of several months of extra income first.