Long Time Listeners, First Time Podcasters

Podcasts are increasing in popularity at a stellar rate. And with the increased accessibility of recording and editing tools, this new form of broadcasting has transformed from a specialized occupation to something that the layman can do as a side hustle. So who actually ends up hitting record and starts their own podcasts?

By tracking the share of workers who list podcasting as their side hustles with Revelio Labs labor market analytics, we can see that the share of workers has been steadily increasing across the last decade.

And although most podcast hosts are “professionals”, in the sense that their main job is podcasting, about a third of hosts have another primary occupation, Revelio Labs data shows.

Among the side hustle podcasters, the most common main occupations are those within creative industries like writers, content specialists, and producers. The skillset of these professions closely aligns with those necessary to become a successful podcast host. The list also features those with specific domain knowledge about public interests, such as coaches and economists.

Next, we turn to how these side hustle podcasters look in terms of their demographic distribution:

Majority of podcasts hosts are millennial men. In fact, there are many more male podcast hosts than there are female. When we look at the age distribution of podcasters, it is easy to spot millennials’ love for this medium. Millennials are overrepresented in hosting podcasts compared to baseline distribution in the workforce.

Key Takeaways:

• Starting a podcast as a side hustle has skyrocketed in the last few years.
• Although the side hustlers are on the rise, podcast hosting is still mostly a full-time job, with around two thirds of podcasts hosts listing it as their primary job, according to our labor market analytics.
• Podcast hosts are overwhelmingly millennial men.