Since losing his job as a Walmart manager, 50-year-old DJ Perdue has applied to about 10 jobs a day for the past year and a half. After months of rejections, he decided to launch TeenyTown, an indoor play space for kids in Union City, California.
“I had to do something,” Perdue told Business Insider. “And it was something that I had always wanted to do.”
DJ Perdue
Perdue wanted to focus on his four children. He said he used his severance package and bonus from his last job to build a business while he was out of work.
While attendance at TeenyTown has been steady, he said it isn’t enough to support his family yet. Perdue said he makes enough to cover rent and utilities at the play space, but has had trouble affording anything else. His fiancée, who is still employed, has taken on most of the burden, he said.
“I’m basically two months away from losing my business if I don’t find a job soon, because I can’t keep eating off of that money,” said Perdue. He added that he recently had to sell his home and move to a less-expensive rental property.
Perdue isn’t alone in turning to self-employment after a job loss. Business Insider spoke with three other Gen Xers who said they made such a pivot.
For some, personal ventures are a temporary stop-gap. For others, self-employment feels like a lifeline while job searching in a stagnant-feeling labor market.
Regardless of the reason, self-employment is a relatively common choice for Gen X. A Business Insider analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey showed that 12% of employed people aged 44 to 59 were self-employed in 2024.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Giving up on the job hunt
While the job market is tough for everyone, it can be especially challenging for seasoned workers who have pay and title expectations. Many also face concerns about ageism or being seen as overqualified.
Rick J. Sanchez, 49, began his career in hardware and software distribution sales before opening an Allstate insurance and financial services practice. He later moved to working in business development and startups. But when he reentered the job market in 2023, he struggled to land a role.
“You can’t put founder or president or board chair of anything on your résumé and get a call back,” Sanchez said.
After a year and a half of job hunting, Sanchez launched Mentratik, a PR and crisis communications firm.
“We’ve only been in existence for about a year,” Sanchez said. “But it sure beats pounding the pavement looking for work every day.”
Making a pivot
In the first quarter of 2024, 3% of all businesses had fully shut down within the previous year, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Even with businesses’ high failure rate, some pursue personal projects to stay active and reclaim a sense of purpose when the system feels stacked against them.
After being laid off in April, 48-year-old Rob Santoliquito also decided to strike out on his own, opening a a Screenmobile franchise in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which specializes in screen replacement. Similar to Sanchez, he’s appreciated the fresh start. Santoliquito said he told his wife when he began his last job, “If this doesn’t work out, I’m never going back.”
Santoliquito said he has no regrets about his career, which offered him a stable path and high compensation while it lasted. In recent years, however, he’s viewed the overall labor market as a “shrinking pie” and said that companies are eager to reduce head count, especially for more expensive workers.
Sallie Griffiths, a former C-suite leader who spent decades building business development teams and training realtors, said she’s also noticed as she’s gotten older that the same types of opportunities are no longer as plentiful.
After her last layoff in May 2024, Griffith was hired full-time at a franchise, making around a quarter of what she used to make. She continues to take on side gigs, piecing together a living through part-time work like managing a law firm in the US Virgin Islands and dog sitting.
Griffith also started a consulting business to help guide entrepreneurs in starting new businesses and created a foundation to help underserved women in her community get higher-paying jobs.
“Right now, I’m spinning about five different plates at any given time,” Griffith said.
Madison Hoff contributed to this article.
Have you struggled to find a job? We want to hear from you. Reach out to the reporter via email at [email protected] or through the secure-messaging app Signal at aalt.19.
