07:05 AM CDT on Friday, August 26, 2005
By DANIELLE DiMARTINO and VICTOR GODINEZ / The Dallas Morning News
Maybe it's not such a bad thing seniors are rejoining the workforce in droves.
At least that's the take on a new report out of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks layoff activity and hiring trends.
The country, it would seem, is standing at the precipice of another explosion in start-up activity, the likes of which haven't been seen since the dot-com revolution of the early 1990s.
"This time around, however, the burst in entrepreneurial activity will not be led by 20-somethings," the report suggested, "but by baby boomers and would-be retirees in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and even 70s, who are better educated, healthier and more tech-savvy than their predecessors."
By all appearances, the wave of boomer entrepreneurship has already started.
Of the 3,000 job seekers interviewed for the Challenger report, 13 percent opted to start their own businesses in the second quarter.
The number is up 10 percent from the same period last year.
Of that slice, 87 percent were over 40 years old.
Using previously unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Challenger report revealed that the number of those 55 to 64 categorized as self-employed in non-agricultural industries has increased 29 percent in the last five years. The number 65 and older has increased 18 percent.
"All told," the report said, "the boomer-and-older now account for 54 percent of self-employed workers."
Part of the aging entrepreneur phenomenon can be explained by simple demographics, said Dr. Mike Davis, a lecturer at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
"Everybody is older than they used to be," Dr. Davis said. "And I mean that seriously. The population is aging."
But the data in the Challenger report suggest self-employment is rising faster among the 40-and-up generation than actuarial tables alone would predict, he said.
"That's clearly outpacing the change in the population," Dr. Davis said.
Some boomers clearly are working out of necessity.
"For many, imploding pension plans and a volatile stock market have diminished retirement savings," the report said. "To make matters worse, many aging workers suddenly found themselves out of work due to corporate downsizing."
A survey by U.S. News & World Report revealed that more than half of 45-to-54-year-olds have less than $50,000 saved for retirement.
"I think this notion of age 65 retirement, that was for a previous generation," Dr. Davis said. "People are not going to be retiring at 65 when they plan to live to 90."
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