Older Americans increasingly create corporations

With the recession leaving many of the nation’s more seasoned workers unemployed, it seems many older Americans opted to create a corporation instead of take entry level positions elsewhere.

Millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 started businesses between 2008 and 2009, reports USA Today. The newspaper references a study from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor which shows an increase in the number of older individuals who decide to become their own bosses.

Dane Stangler, a research manager at Kauffman, told the source that data from the Kauffman Foundation supports the idea that the elderly are increasingly starting companies.

Stangler told the newspaper, “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.”

Still, many older entrepreneurs told the Wall Street Journal one problem they commonly face is finding funding. Many lenders regard starting a business as a young entrepreneur’s game, the entrepreneurs say. Nonetheless, President Barack Obama’s recent appeal to extend a $30 billion boost to small banks to increase startup loans may soon make it easier for business owners – of all ages – to find funds.