Gen Z isn't waiting to be hired — they're building their own businesses across the country

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The newest members of the workforce are having trouble finding the on-ramp to their careers, so they're building their own.

Gen Z is the most likely generation to have been job hunting for over a year, among active job seekers surveyed from LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index. "New grads are entering one of the most competitive job markets in years," Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn's chief economist, explains. "Competition has intensified, people are transitioning jobs less often and traditional career paths feel far less linear."

In a labor market defined by uncertainty, more young professionals are creating their own opportunities instead of waiting for them. New technology is helping to make that possible. Across the U.S., entrepreneurship is surging — the number of LinkedIn members adding "founder" to their profile has jumped nearly 70% year-over-year and has nearly tripled since 2022. 

And early-career professionals aren't just starting more companies, they're doing so from new places, under new conditions and for new reasons.

The San Francisco Bay Area remains the country's densest founder ecosystem. Part of the appeal is the network: 80% of founders in the Bay Area say local networking is important and 76% want easier access to knowledge from other small business owners. The Bay Area saw growth at +153% between 2020 and 2025. New York also saw strong growth at +107%.

But the geography of entrepreneurship is decentralizing — and Gen Z is leading the change. Over the last five years, Gen Z founder growth surged fastest in Sun Belt metros, with a few outpacing traditional innovation hubs. 

The Lone Star State, in particular, is a popular choice. Dallas leads the pack at +192% growth, followed by Austin at +173%. Houston, San Diego, Atlanta and Miami all topped +120%. Established hubs like Boston (+84%) and Los Angeles (+76%) aren't keeping pace with the Sun Belt's momentum.

Part of the explanation for growth beyond the traditional coastal tech hubs is practical. Lower costs of living, favorable tax environments and growing local networks are pulling young entrepreneurs toward metros where their dollar goes further and the barriers to getting started are lower. Plus, Mastercard data shows that nearly half of new U.S. ventures created last year are online only — meaning a founder's location is increasingly a lifestyle choice, not a strategic one. 

Gen Z founders are getting started wherever they are. Just ask Gigi Robinson, who built her six-figure business from her parents' house while paying off her student loans.

Robinson started posting on TikTok around the same time she graduated from the University of Southern California during the pandemic. Within months, she'd landed her first brand deal. Six years later, the 27-year-old has a following of more than 500,000 people and a consulting firm that helps other young creators get ahead. 

"Working for yourself is not just a trend," she says. "It's a way to protect yourself in this super volatile and unpredictable job market."

The backdrop to this shift is a cooling labor market. In April, hiring across industries in the U.S. slowed for a fourth consecutive month. What's more? Hiring is down 8.5% year-over-year — and 27% below pre-pandemic levels, LinkedIn data shows.

Early-career professionals, specifically, are feeling this. Gen Z is less confident than their older counterparts in their ability to land and hold a job these days, the Workforce Confidence survey shows. They're also the generation most concerned that their current or future job may not align with their career goals.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, aren't feeling this same strain. The survey found that self-employed professionals are less likely than full-time or part-time professionals to be concerned that their current or future job may not align with their long-term goals. They're also largely fulfilled on the job, with 69% reporting they're satisfied with their job and 69% reporting their job is an important part of their identity.

For Robinson, the appeal comes down to something she says most people overlook. "Nobody is talking about the fact that your time is what entrepreneurship is about," she says. "People are just waking up to having autonomy over their job."

That desire for control is showing up in the data. Flexibility (55%) and financial independence (54%) remain consistent motivations across generations to pursue working for yourself, according to a recent survey conducted by Censuswide on LinkedIn's behalf. But Gen Z is approaching entrepreneurship differently. 

They're the most likely generation to define success in terms of financial wealth and are nearly three times more comfortable taking big risks than baby boomers to get there. At the same time, many are building portfolio careers with multiple income streams — a strategy designed to build resilience and create greater control over work and income. 

Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z entrepreneurs surveyed report multiple income streams. Robinson, for example, isn't just consulting. She's taking on speaking engagements, authoring books and more.

AI tools are making it easier than ever to manage it all.

The majority of entrepreneurs surveyed (69%) say starting a business is more achievable today than it was for previous generations. AI and digital tools are a major reason why, lowering traditional barriers like cost, connections and technical expertise.

Younger entrepreneurs are driving this adoption. More than two-thirds (68%) of Gen Z entrepreneurs surveyed say AI and digital tools have been important in enabling them to start or run their business — more than twice the rate of baby boomers (27%).

Take Morgan Mackenzie. After graduating Duke University in 2023, she took a job at Amazon Web Services. But at 6'2", she struggled to find fashion that worked for her body — and what started as a personal frustration became a business idea. She left her corporate role to build an AI-powered fashion company full-time.

"I use ChatGPT and Claude as my greatest collaborators," Mackenzie says. She's working one prompt at a time: "If I want to make this button exist on the website, give me the steps to do that."

💡Interested in how other young professionals are launching their careers? Check out LinkedIn's latest Grad's Guide.

Her story illustrates a broader pattern: AI is enabling people to start businesses they previously wouldn't have had the expertise, resources or connections to start on their own.

LinkedIn data shows that small businesses employ roughly half of the U.S. workforce and the companies with the most hiring momentum are smaller, or those with 11 to 50 employees.

The reason? "Small businesses can be dynamic, fluid and more technologically advanced," Michelle Meyer, Mastercard's chief economist, explains. Tech-enabled small firms tend to grow faster and spin up new roles earlier — meaning today's founders are shaping tomorrow's job market. Case in point: 57% of U.S. entrepreneurs and small business owners surveyed believe AI can help them compete with larger companies to find and attract better talent. For a generation contending with fewer traditional on-ramps to their careers, that momentum matters.

This isn't to say working at or starting a small business is a cure-all. About 20% of new ventures don't make it through their first year and close to half don't make it to year five, according to the Commerce Institute. Louie Bernstein, a 20-year sales entrepreneur, puts it plainly: "Most founders quit too early. Not because they're weak, but because nobody showed them how determination and persistence really work."

Mackenzie knows the feeling. "I'm nauseous like every other day," she tells LinkedIn News. "But I'm happy."

For many young professionals, the risk of building something new feels more manageable than the risk of waiting for the labor market to come around, especially as the tools to get started become more accessible.

"These trends point to a labor market that's more cautious, but also one where early-career talent is adapting quickly and building confidence in how to navigate it," LinkedIn's Kimbrough says. 

That adaptation increasingly includes entrepreneurship. "If you're feeling the itch to work for yourself, do it," Robinson says. "Entrepreneurship isn't something I would say is easy, but it is empowering."

💡Looking for resources to upskill or get started? Check out these LinkedIn Learning courses, free for all members until the end of 2026: Scaling Your Small Business, The AI Edge for Entrepreneurs, Small Business Marketing