Planning for the golden years is getting more difficult. The cost of living, property taxes, and health insurance – everything is going up and making it difficult for older adults to afford even the basics, much less a comfortable savings account to see them through retirement and beyond. For Gen X, things seem to be getting even tougher as more employers are laying off the Forgotten Generation, leaving them without earned income to support themselves.
Laying Off Gen X
As of 2024, Gen X employees made up 33% of the workforce, according to global educational services company Kaplan. This group, born between 1965 and 1980, is also known as the sandwich generation. Ranging from about 45 to 61, these people are still working, trying to pay off mortgages and college tuitions, saving for retirement, and taking care of aging parents – and sometimes children. They are usually established in their careers and don’t expect to retire until they’re 65.
But something is changing in the workforce. Now these mid-lifers are finding themselves pushed out of jobs, being replaced by younger adults and technology. Employers look at their spreadsheets and bank accounts and realize they can hire Gen Z and millennials to accomplish what Gen X does, but at a cheaper rate. Besides salary, the new hires won’t have the same level of benefits. And all it costs these companies is experience.
But the budget is only part of the problem. Technology has a heavy hand in this phenomenon as well. Gen X is the generation that witnessed the big shift from an analog to a digital world. They grew up with vinyl records, cassette tapes, and rotary phones, but were able to transition to DVDs, the internet, and mobile phones. Even so, younger people are usually much more adept with cell phones, social media, and newer tech gadgets. Since today’s society – business and personal – depends heavily on the internet and social platforms, Gen X is being tossed aside for those who have more understanding and experience in this world.
“On average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period,” according to the World Economic Forum. Furthermore:
“Broadening digital access is expected to be the most transformative trend – both across technology-related trends and overall – with 60% of employers expecting it to transform their business by 2030. Advancements in technologies, particularly AI and information processing (86%); robotics and automation (58%); and energy generation, storage and distribution (41%), are also expected to be transformative. These trends are expected to have a divergent effect on jobs, driving both the fastest-growing and fastest-declining roles, and fueling demand for technology-related skills, including AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity and technological literacy, which are anticipated to be the top three fastest- growing skills.”
A recent Gallup poll revealed that 26% of employees choose to work remotely if given the option, while more than half work from home at least some of the time. Only 21% of the workforce is now on-site. This is a night-and-day difference for Gen Xers who are used to showing up every day to sit at a desk and work in an office.
Gen X is also caught in the middle between boomers who hold leadership positions and millennials who make up the largest share of the workforce. Most in the Forgotten Generation have middle management roles, which are one of the first areas to be cut when employers consider layoffs.
What About Retirement?
Most of Gen X is not prepared for retirement. According to a 2023 Prudential study, 35% of this generation have less than $10,000 saved and 18% don’t have any kind of savings at all.
Full retirement under Social Security doesn’t start until 65, or 62 for early retirement, which means a smaller check if you take it. If you wait until 70, then your benefit amount will increase, according to the Social Security Department. But if someone loses their job in their 50s, what options do they have?
“Nearly 25% of older Gen X and young boomer workers who have been laid off in the past decade haven’t been able to find a new job since,” Fortune reported. “About 11% are so desperate to land work they’ve even taken a pay cut. More than any other generation, Gen Xers are finding themselves overlooked, underpaid, and edged out—just as their personal financial pressures are hitting a peak.”
Gen X is too young to stop working, too old to easily start over, and is growing invisible in a labor market obsessed with cutting costs and chasing new skills. For the generation that bridged analog and digital, and kept businesses running through decades of change, being pushed out now is not just an economic problem - it’s a warning sign about how easily today’s workforce can become tomorrow’s forgotten demographic.
