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Challenger: Older Entrepreneurs Flourishing
Unpublished government data cited by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas show that the number of Americans 55 and older categorized as self-employed has increased 18% to just over 3 million as of October 2003 from 2.55 million in 1994. These senior entrepreneurs now represent 28.5% of all self-employed workers, which is the highest percentage among all of the age categories tracked by the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to CEO John Challenger, the surge in senior start-ups is due to several factors, including the enduring perception that age discrimination in the workplace remains pervasive. There is also a growing desire among older workers for a high level of workplace flexibility that they feel can only be achieved by acting as their own boss.
“The latest government figures indicate that the tide is
turning toward more experienced individuals, many of whom
may have lost their jobs during the three-year wave of
job cutting, which has yet to let up. Stock market
gyrations that caused retirement funds to shrink in value
may be a reason the most senior new entrepreneur firms
were launched,” Challenger said in a statement. .
While self-employment was expanding among those 55 and
up, it was falling for almost every other age group. The
only other age group to see an increase in
self-employment between 1994 and 2003 was 45- to
54-year-olds, which increased 18% to 2.89 million from
2.46 million. Another factor is that their own
disabilities or those of a spouse have made it preferable
to work from home, an option that many employers still do
not offer.