The Perfect Storm Hitting Generation X
Almost 900,000 private sector employees have already lost their jobs and another 300,000 federal government employees are out of work by the end of 2025, creating unprecedented challenges for white collar workers. Honestly, it’s hard to think of a generation that’s been squeezed quite this hard from so many directions at once. Gen Xers are the least financially prepared generation for retirement by nearly every measure, according to research from the Retirement Income Institute. This is the generation born between 1965 and 1980, currently in their mid forties to early sixties, and they’re facing a financial reckoning unlike anything their parents experienced.
Why Gen X Faces a Retirement Crisis Like No Other
Only 14% of Gen X workers have a traditional pension compared with 56% of boomers, marking a seismic shift in retirement security that happened during their working years. They became guinea pigs for the 401(k) revolution without adequate financial education or support systems in place. On average, Gen Xers expect to retire with $711,771 saved, below the estimated $1.2 million they believe they’ll need, according to the Schroders 2025 US Retirement Survey. Meanwhile, they’ve experienced eight recessions over their lifetimes and witnessed soaring education, health care and housing costs. The gap between what they have and what they need keeps widening.
The Sandwich Generation Gets Crushed
Gen X is the most likely to be supporting both children and aging parents at the same time, draining resources they desperately need for their own futures. More than half of Gen X investors are financially supporting their parents or children, and 21% of these individuals report taking on significant debt to do so, according to Nationwide’s research. This isn’t just about being generous. It’s about being trapped in an impossible situation where saying no means watching loved ones suffer.
Gen Xers saved just under $7,500 in 2024, compared with over $12,000 in annual savings by Millennials, and 43% held credit card debt with an average balance of over $10,000, New York Life’s Wealth Watch survey found.
Debt Mountains That Keep Growing
At $33,859, Gen Xers have the highest median non-mortgage debt across the 100 largest cities, which is double Gen Z’s median of $16,562, according to LendingTree. Let’s be real, this isn’t about irresponsible spending. Compared to other generations, Gen X is most likely to have credit card debt at 39 percent, but they’re also juggling mortgage payments, medical bills, and educational expenses for their kids. Alarmingly, 30% report having less than $100,000 in retirement savings, which is frighteningly inadequate for a comfortable retirement. The psychology of this is brutal, too. A sizable 78% of Gen Xers reportedly worry about finances daily, per Deputy’s report.
Social Security Won’t Save Them
In a 2024 survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, 77 percent of Gen X respondents agreed they are concerned that when ready to retire, Social Security will not be there for them. Their fears aren’t baseless. The program’s trust funds are projected to run short of money in 2034, only two years after the first wave of Gen Xers reach their full retirement age of 67, and benefits would be reduced by an estimated 19 percent, according to the 2025 annual report from Social Security’s Board of Trustees.
Yet 81 percent of Xers plan to rely substantially or somewhat on Social Security for their retirement income, creating a dangerous dependency on a system that might not deliver what they’re counting on.
Automation and AI Target Their Jobs
Older workers are encouraged to protect their finances in this unstable environment but as research shows, it’s impossible to prepare for a bout of unemployment extended indefinitely by age discrimination in the hiring process. Here’s what makes this particularly terrifying for Gen X: they’re old enough to face age discrimination but too young to retire. By 2030, 30% of current U.S. jobs could be fully automated, while 60% will see significant task-level changes due to AI integration, according to National University research.
Current gen AI and other technologies have the potential to automate work activities that absorb up to 70 percent of employees’ time, McKinsey analysis indicates. White collar professionals, the backbone of Gen X employment, are squarely in the crosshairs.
Universal Basic Income Emerges as a Solution
Analysts suggest developing a universal basic income program to address long-term joblessness among those older workers who are too young to collect Social Security, according to research published in the book American Idle: Late Career Job Loss in a Neoliberal Era. Universal basic income is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment. The concept isn’t science fiction anymore.
According to Stanford University’s Basic Income Lab, citizens in 18 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have taken part in some form of basic income study in 2025. These pilot programs provide monthly payments ranging from $500 to $1,000 with no strings attached, testing whether direct cash transfers can stabilize families facing economic uncertainty.
Pilot Programs Show Promising Results
The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration provided unconditional cash payments to 125 people over a two-year period and is among the most rigorously evaluated pilots in the nation, confirming that when people have cash, their lives improve in significant ways. Those who received guaranteed income experienced less income volatility than those in a control group who did not receive the cash payment, permitting the beneficiaries to stabilize and plan for the future.
Cook County’s Promise Program is using $42 million of American Rescue Plan funds to give 3,250 low and middle income families $500 a month cash payments over a two year period, with no strings attached or requirements for how it is spent. These aren’t welfare programs with bureaucratic hoops. They’re simple, direct support.
The Political and Economic Reality
As of 2025, no country has implemented a full UBI system, though interest is surging. The Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2025 would establish a three year nationwide pilot program that gives a monthly support payment to individual taxpayers, introduced by Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. The legislation acknowledges that increasing automation and advancing A.I. have the potential to expand human flourishing, but the concentration of control of those technologies into the hands of a few billionaires may mean the eventual loss of the livelihoods of millions of Americans.
I think there’s a growing recognition that traditional safety nets weren’t designed for the economic disruptions we’re experiencing now. Gen X finds themselves at ground zero of this transformation.
Why Gen X Would Need UBI More Than Other Generations
Around 15% of Gen Xers now plan to retire later than they originally hoped, and 26% believe they would need to return to the workforce within 12 months if they retired today due to inadequate savings, according to the Nationwide Retirement Institute. But what happens when age discrimination prevents them from finding work? It’s Gen Xers who are forced to tack on the most gigs to afford the economy, reports from Deputy show. They’re working harder than any generation just to stay afloat.
The combination of inadequate retirement savings, disappearing pensions, uncertain Social Security, automation threats, and caregiving burdens creates a uniquely vulnerable position. Targeted education and training programs would empower unemployed Gen Xers to access fields in which job growth is predicted to increase, but retraining programs alone won’t solve the magnitude of this crisis.
Universal basic income could provide the financial floor this generation desperately needs. It would give them dignity while navigating job transitions, caring for family members, or simply surviving the gap between losing employment and qualifying for Social Security. The question isn’t whether Gen X needs support. It’s whether we’ll implement it before an entire generation falls through the cracks.
