Young Canadians turn to side hustles amid tough job market and AI concerns
A growing number of young people are working multiple jobs as youth unemployment rises and AI threatens entry-level roles.
Young Canadians are increasingly cobbling together multiple sources of income as they face a difficult job market, high youth unemployment and the rise of artificial intelligence.
Akarshi Sharma, a 25-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., works full-time in tech but also paints nails and streams video games for extra cash.
"I do think that people having multiple streams of income is going to become the norm because it’s hard to function on just one," Ms. Sharma said.
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An H&R Block survey found that 7.4 million adult Canadians were part of the gig economy in 2025, with nearly one in four reporting a gig or side hustle, up from 13 per cent three years earlier.
A separate Capital One survey from 2025 found 36 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 44 have a second source of income, with Gen Z adults 10 per cent more likely to have a side hustle than millennials or Gen Xers.
Asmita Bhutani, a York University assistant professor who studies automation and gig work, says the normalization of gig work as a secondary income source is a recent phenomenon.
"If we talk about even up until 10 years ago, this is not something that was normalized at all in our labour market," she said.
Ms. Sharma, who graduated with a computer science degree in 2024, said entry-level tech openings were scarce and she believes AI has made it harder for junior developers to break in.
Half of her monthly income goes to rent, so her side hustles help with savings and unexpected expenses.
Her Gel-X nail certification cost $1,400, plus $500 to $800 for supplies, and her new business brings in about $120 to $180 a month from two to three appointments.
Streaming on Twitch earns her around $200 a month for 10 to 15 hours of work each week.
For others, side income fills a gap left by a lack of full-time work.
Maryam Mahmoudi, a 29-year-old Calgarian with an electrical engineering degree and a master’s in applied mathematics, graduated in 2024 but has struggled to find a job in her field.
She has done part-time data analysis work while also conducting paid research interviews and mystery shopping assignments.
"I felt like a loser," she said when describing her struggle to find a role that used her education.
"I wasn’t using any of the skills that I learned in my bachelor’s and master’s, like programming, coding and mathematical modelling."
She attributes the difficulty to recent layoffs, which have new graduates competing with experienced candidates, and believes AI is reducing the need for some entry-level roles.
According to Statistics Canada, youth unemployment has risen sharply from the lows of 2022.
U.S. tariffs and trade tensions have weighed on hiring in trade-exposed industries, and employment among young workers in coding-intensive professions such as software engineering stagnated between 2022 and 2025.
The Bank of Canada has found young people report heightened concerns about job loss amid the trade conflict and warns AI could pose additional risks for some young workers.
Torontonian Armaan Rashid, 30, was laid off from his account executive role in July 2025, which he attributes to U.S. tariffs and the Canada-U.S. trade war hurting business travel.
He now runs a sales services business and rents out his apartment on Airbnb.
"It’s not really a choice," he said.
"It’s more like you have to adapt to the situation."
Prof. Bhutani says juggling multiple jobs can create its own insecurity and lead to exhaustion.
"I haven’t really met a worker who said that ‘I do five jobs and I love them all’," she said.
With files from The Globe and Mail