Why Now

For years, Generation X has been the invisible generation. Too small to dominate headlines like the Boomers, too old to be considered “the future” like Millennials and Gen Z. We were told to “get a job” — and we did. We worked through recessions, layoffs, dot-com busts, financial crashes, and pandemics. We hustled, adapted, and built the very digital economy now consuming us.

But here we are, staring down 2030, when the first wave of Gen X is supposed to retire. Instead of security, many face a wall. Pensions? Gone. 401(k)s? Hollowed out by market shocks. Healthcare? Ever more expensive. And ageism makes “second acts” harder to land than ever.

This isn’t just about Gen X. It’s about what happens when the first truly precarious generation hits retirement. It’s a preview of what’s coming for everyone else. If the middle child of history — the generation raised on latchkeys and layoffs — can’t land a safe landing, then what does that say about the future of work, dignity, and aging in America?

We are telling this story now because the silence has lasted long enough. Because the narrative of “individual failure” hides a collective betrayal. Because this generation has always been the test market for change — and what’s happening to Gen X now foreshadows what Millennials and Gen Z will inherit.

Generation Unemployed is not just a documentary. It’s a warning flare. A reckoning. A human story about what happens when a generation that did everything “right” discovers the system was never built to hold them up.

We’re not waiting until 2030 to talk about it. We’re talking about it now.