Gen Y Forecast To “Fuel Small Business Growth”

When it comes to small firms that’ll be created in the next five years, members of Generation Y will be behind more of them than any other demographic, judging from a new report.  Employers (the insurance specialist that takes an all-caps approach to writing its own name) found that a whopping 46 percent of 18-to-25-year-olds mean to follow that path.

Granted, it’s hard to imagine that many small businesses springing up – or at least staying up – so existing small business owners might not see quite that much competition from young people.  Still, eight percent of the members of Gen Y who took the Employers poll indicated they’d already started a business, so more are almost certain to do the same.

As for who else might decide to become their own boss in the next five years, Employers said in a statement, "35 percent of Gen X respondents (ages 26 to 45) also report the desire to create new businesses in the same timeframe."

Then the statement continued, "The inclination to start a business in the next five years declines among Baby Boomers (ages 46 to 65) at 21 percent and The Silent Generation (over 66 years old) at four percent."

Employers got data from over 1,250 consumers, meaning these stats should be somewhat reliable.  There’s a snapshot of who the owners of existing firms may have to compete with sooner rather than later, then.

Good luck to everyone.