Forget Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Year” or Spotify Wrapped: if you really want to get deep into the collective psyche on an annual basis, you have to look at porn. Or, rather, look at PornHub’s Year in Review. 

Since 2013, PornHub has been collecting insights from their audience’s viewing habits, tracing the “ever-evolving desires, curiosities, and cultural obsessions shaping our world.” And every year, new results emerge that tell us something about the last twelve months and what we’ve yearned for. 

This year, one thing was clear: we all really wanted a job.

Any job, really: according to their data, career-centric “role play” searches rose 98 percent, with “driver” being the fastest growing term at 144 percent. Meanwhile, terms like “plumber,” “professor” and “chef” saw a boost, too. 

Many were a bit more vague in their ambitions. The term “employee” increased in popularity 183 percent, followed closely by “boss” at 175 percent. Audiences also fantasized over the opportunity for office affairs 210 percent more than last year. PornHub speculates this has something to do with the Coldplay concert affair, with a similar spike in searches for “CEO.” 

Sex educator Dakota Rampen commented on the job roleplaying trend for PornHub, saying that “people want stories, structure, power dynamics, etc. The spike in role play categories suggest viewers are craving scenarios that feel more like ‘real life, but spicier.’ It’s less about pure sex, more about context—taboo, authority play, everyday fantasies.” She went on to suggest that people are bored with formulaic porn and an interest in exploring power dynamics or role-switching. 

But if you take a look at the news and see the headlines on how jobless claims are at a four and a half year high, you might come up with a different interpretation.

Of course, a steady paycheck isn’t the only thing people were getting off to in 2025. “Lesbian” was the most viewed category of the year, with “transgender” in second place. “Femboy” also joined the Top 10 Search Terms. And of course, “MILF” maintained its place as one of the biggest search terms in the world. 

In addition to the fantasy of having a job, there was also a dramatic spike in people searching for content they could watch at work. “Safe for Work,” or “SFW” searches grew 114 percent this year, namely in searches for SFW ASMR, tease and dance videos. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but searching “SFW” on PornHub doesn’t really change the reality that you probably shouldn’t be on PornHub at work. Unless you’re me, writing this article right now.