In the years after the global economy fell in 2008, another trend seemed to be on the rise: “hipsters,” a subculture commonly defined by its rejection of all things mainstream. Journalists would have had us believe hipsters were taking over the country one kombucha pop-up and handlebar mustache at a time — and that their presence was partly to blame for the economic distress of the time.
Aside from quirky shopping habits, hipsters were grouped with millennials (those born in 1981 through 1996) as part of “the cheapest generation,” blamed for everything from declining car sales to killing golf. However, the narrative has since changed; conditions once pegged on hipsters are now commonly attributed to the economy as a whole.
While traditional purchases such as cars and houses may have dipped with the hipsters’ rise, other categories, such as tattoos and vegan food, have been on the uptick in the years since 2008. Now that the economy has improved and hipsters have gotten older, we wondered: how have job searches associated with hipster-friendly trends fared?
Hipster job searches are on the rise
Since the post-recession hipster heyday began, this group has most often been associated with a few key trends, including: yoga; organic and vegan food; vintage, funky personal style; and anything with the words “small batch” or “craft” in the title.
To learn more about employment in these sectors, we dug into Indeed data on jobs connected to hipster stereotypes. We analyzed jobs and job searches that included variations of the following keywords (chosen for their commonly understood inclusion in the hipster vernacular): “organic”; “vegan”; “coffee”; “vintage”; “yoga”; “pop up”; “craft”; “tattoo”; and “distillery.” Here’s what we found:
The recession may be over, but job searches with hipster keywords are actually on the rise. Between 2015 and 2018, job searches including some combination of the terms listed above increased by 57%.*
Yoga is the most popular hipster job-search term
Next, we analyzed the data to identify the five most popular terms from the list above:
Of the top five search terms, “yoga” wins by a landslide. Practicing yoga continues to gain popularity in the broader culture, and many studios offer their own teacher training, effectively creating a student-to-instructor pipeline. In fact, the wellness industry as a whole is booming — it grew 12.8% from 2015 to 2017, and was worth $4.2 trillion in 2018.
The second-most popular hipster job-search keyword is “tattoo.” This industry generated $1.6 billion in revenue last year, thanks not only to the growing popularity of tattoos (47% of people age 18 to 35 have at least one), but also to an increased demand for pricey custom tattoo work.
Keywords related to the food and beverage industry rounded out the top-five list. In third place was “vegan,” followed by “distillery” and “craft beer.”
Bartending is the most widely available hipster job
It turns out that the most popular search terms don’t necessarily align with the…