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The New York Times published an article on Friday that examines how the economic downturn has led some people to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors rather than focus on a traditional job search.
Many "laid-off workers across the country, burned out by a merciless job market, are building business plans instead of sending out résumés. For these people, recession has become the mother of invention," according to the Times. I'm definitely seeing a lot of this online and offline--laid-off workers are increasingly creating their own projects while they try to find a full-time position or focusing on entrepreneurial pursuits indefinitely.
The article reports on the experiences of five people who are doing just this, and the interesting thing about the coverage is that although four of the five people mentioned are millennials, the article doesn't make any mention of Generation Y or raise the Gen. Y/entrepreneurial angle. And of course, there's lots of buzz about Gen. Y being an especially entrepreneurial generation.
While the article includes analysis from a few people who are probably not members of Gen. Y (their ages aren't listed), the only other non-millennial mentioned is a 35 year old who was laid off from Yahoo.
Since there was really no mention of this being a strictly generational phenomenon, it's interesting that the reporter only included examples of people who are younger. Obviously there are reasons why entrepreneurship is more feasible for people in their twenties, but I wonder if the depth of entrepreneurial response to the economy amongst younger workers is uniquely Gen. Y.
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Comments
03.16.09
It definitely seems that more young adults are looking to create small businesses rather than depend on employers who may or may not survive. It's making people push harder to do what they believe in most...
03.16.09
Very interesting commentary! Way to call out the NYT for this. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I see entrepreneurship as a huge trend for Gen Y. I recently blogged about it in my "Gen Y Trends to Watch" http://www.y-rd.com/2008/12/gen-y-trends-to-watch-in-2009-and.html My boyfriend was recently laid off and now he is pursuing more freelance -- a perfect example I think.
Thanks for this!
03.16.09
I have been trading from home for over a year now and the freedom, lifestyle and challenge of the markets has turned out to be everything I have been looking for.
03.17.09
One of the more interesting takes I've heard on this is that smaller, individual run business are historically what people have done. Up until the industrial revolution, everyone ran a small home business. Bakers, cheese makers, blacksmiths, etc. The life of climbing the ladder inside a corporate mega-giant is actually a relatively recent phenomenon in human history. I think the lessons of the past century have generally shown that people hate it and want out, if only they could find a way. Now with our generation, the internet is making it a lot more accessible for people to strike out on their own with little startup cost.
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