By BROOKE SCHULTZ
Grace Xu, holding a compact mirror and an eyelash curler, told her around 300,000 TikTok followers that she was likely going to be laid off.
She confirmed in a later video that she was indeed being laid off, but planned to pursue a new career as a content creator.
“I suppose the decision has been made for me,” she says in a video posted earlier this year. “The universe has spoken.”
According to reports, the U.S. job market is strong, with employers hiring 303,000 workers in March. The unemployment rate has now been below 4% for 26 consecutive months, the longest period since the 1960s.
However, this provides little comfort to the many people who are still out of work. Hiring has been mostly focused on certain industries, with tech and finance only adding a small number of jobs in the last 12 months.
Instead of trying to go back to regular jobs, people like 26-year-old Xu are creating a new path for themselves through content creation on the internet. They can earn money through brand deals and advertising by making social media videos that range from educational to entertaining.
“I think most employees no longer see traditional jobs as providing long-term security,” said Sarah Damaske, who studies labor and employment relations, and sociology at Penn State. “I think it makes it less risky to do something like become a content creator because traditional employment is much riskier.”
In a $250 billion industry, 4% of global content creators earn over $100,000 annually, according to Goldman Sachs Research. YouTube, considered one of the more profitable platforms, has over 3 million channels in its YouTube Partner Program, where creators make money. A spokesperson said the platform paid out over $70 billion in the last three years.
Meanwhile, TikTok — which is facing a potential national ban that could cost many creators their income — has experienced a 15% growth in user monetization, according to a company spokesperson.
According to Brooke Erin Duffy, a communication professor at Cornell University, many people only pursue full-time content creation after they see results from their work. Alternatively, they are forced into it as a way to get back into employment.
The pandemic has also changed how workers view their jobs, with many preferring more control over their schedules and the option to work from home. In February, almost 440,000 people applied to start their own businesses — almost 50% more than the monthly average of 300,000 just before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Some of these people are content creators, although they likely make up only a small fraction.
For Xu, the pandemic allowed her to rediscover her hobbies. She started making content at that time under the username @amazingishgrace on TikTok. Her thrift flips — all handmade — became popular and steadily grew her following. Even when she left her banking job to enter the tech sector for a better work-life balance, she continued to create content.
When a round of job cuts happened last summer, Xu considered whether she should focus on creating content full time, even though she was deeply afraid of ruining things she loved by turning them into work. Her own layoff sped up her timeline.
"You just have to have this belief that, like, once your life is wide open for something, it will come," she said, "otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy thinking about it."
Another content creator, known as Pot Roast’s Mom on TikTok, talked about staying in her engineering job for a long time because she was afraid of not having health insurance while also needing to pay off her student loan. However, when her cat, Pot Roast, died two years ago, she turned to content creation full time.
"Her death just like revealed, or I guess opened my eyes, to that I liked nothing in my life besides her," said Pot Roast’s Mom, who goes by her username to protect her privacy. "And when she died, I was like, OK, it’s time to make some changes."
A community of women in the industry helped her transition from traditional employment to full-time content creation by explaining brand deal pricing, and setting up payment tiers on platforms like Patreon, a subscriber service for content creators.
She has gained 1.2 million followers on TikTok and the majority of her income came from Patreon last year — about $30,000 — with a small portion coming from brand deals, around another $10,000.
Pot Roast’s Mom watched a video recently where a woman said creating cat content earned her $200,000 in a year. More than likely, she said, that was a one-off.
"I think if you do something like this, you have to be ready to fail, ready to not make a lot of money," she said. "You have to be realistic."
Indeed, it takes time, energy and resources to turn content creation into a successful career, Duffy said. Creators have to negotiate multivideo brand deals or sponsorships to have a semblance of steady income, but those can have monthslong payout dates. Some rely on savings from their traditional careers to plug the gaps while they wait.
"The level of unpredictability when you’re dependent on a platform is quite profound," she said. "Your success is dependent upon an algorithm or updated community guidelines or an audience that may or may not like you on any given day."
Cynthia Huang Wang tried her hand in full-time content creation after she was laid off from her brand marketing job in February 2023. In January, she posted a TikTok about returning to the workforce, taking her 164,000 TikTok followers along as she updated her resume.
With the job market improving, Wang said she sees the appeal of returning to a stable income. Maternity leave at a corporate job also has pull as she and her husband consider starting a family.
There are limitations, though, to what she’s willing to return for, including pay, title and work she’s interested in doing.
"Going back to the office every day would be a nonstarter for me," she said. "I think maybe like two, or max three, days because I still want to be able to create content. And I think going into the office every single day would really impact that."
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