Baby Boomers are today's entrepreneurs

June 22, 7:36 AMBaby Boomer ExaminerPaul Briand

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The bright ideas for entrepreneurship these days are
coming from Baby Boomers, according to a study.

If you're thinking that the majority of entrepreneurs are young go-getters you'd be thinking wrong.

In fact, according to the Kauffman Foundation, the the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity belongs Baby Booomer go-getters, 55 to 64.

"The fact that the largest age group of our population is also the most entrepreneurial bodes well for the United States' economic future," Robert E. Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation, said in a statement.

The foundation looked at trends toward a recovery from the current economic recession. It also looked at employment characteristics, particularly how younger people (those under 30) typically and comfortably move from job to job, and how older workers, especially those over 50, can no longer count on lifetime employment.

"Given the shifting age distribution of the country, the continued decline of lifetime employment and the experience and tacit knowledge such employees carry with them,
and the effects of the 2008-2009 recession on established sectors of the economy, we may be about to enter a highly entrepreneurial period," said the Kauffman Foundation report, "The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom."

While we assume that entrepreneurship is the realm of young people -- especially within the technology sector, a la Facebook and Twitter -- in fact the 20 to 34 age bracket has the lowest rate of entrepreneurial activity, according to the report.

The foundation found, for example:

• In every single year from 1996 to 2007, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20-34;
• For the entire period, the 55-64 group averaged a rate of entrepreneurial activity roughly one-third larger than their youngest counterparts.

The foundation expects the trend to continue as Baby Boomers age ... and age in relative good health.

"... a steady increase in life expectancy also means that Americans are not only living longer but also living healthier longer, suggesting that those entrepreneurial 60-year-olds could be 2020’s entrepreneurial 70-year-olds," said the study.

For more info:
"The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom" (pdf)