The Job Market Is Brutal Right Now - Especially If You're a Woman Over 40
If it feels like everyone you know is job hunting right now - you are not imagining it. Real people, real layoffs, real hardship. And if you are a woman over 40 who has been laid off, let go, or quietly pushed out, hear me: this is the hardest job market for our age group in recent history, and you are not alone in it.
What's Actually Happening
The national unemployment rate sits at 4.3% as of May 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). That sounds low - until you look at who is feeling it the most.
Right here in Tennessee and our neighboring states, we are faring better than the national average, with our rate holding at 3.6%. But Tennessee has still shed jobs for five consecutive months, and nearly 40,000 Tennesseans have left the workforce entirely- not because they found something, but because the search wore them down.
And the layoffs are real. From just the first half of 2026, official WARN Act filings show thousands of Tennessee jobs lost - Nike Retail (583 workers, Shelby County), Pilgrim's Pride (315, Chattanooga), First Brands Group (333, Lincoln County), JBS USA Food (208, Memphis), GXO Logistics (185, Shelby County), and more. These are not tech companies in California. These are manufacturing floors, food plants, and distribution centers - the backbone of working Tennessee.
And even that number is almost certainly an undercount. WARN filings are only required when a layoff hits a certain threshold at a single location - generally 50 or more employees at one site within 30 days. A company can lay off hundreds of people across multiple smaller Tennessee locations and never file a single public notice, simply because no one site crossed that line on its own. If your own layoff never made the news or showed up in any official count, that does not mean it was not real or did not matter. The data has real gaps, and plenty of real job loss falls right through them.
Women Over 40 Are Hit the Hardest
According to AARP's 2026 research, 64% of workers 50 and older have personally seen or experienced age discrimination. And 1 in 5 adults 50+ reports they were not hired for a job because of their age.
The job search after 45 takes dramatically longer. On average, women in that age bracket spend 32 or more weeks looking for work - nearly eight months - while bills keep coming and families still need to be fed. And the emotional toll of rejection after rejection, silence after silence, "overqualified" after "overqualified"- it adds up in ways nobody warns you about.
The Stereotype Working Against You (and Why It's Wrong)
Employers often assume older workers are set in their ways and resistant to learning new tools. According to AARP's 2026 workforce research, 33% of older workers report employers assuming they are "less tech-savvy," and 24% report being assumed "resistant to change." The data tells a different story.
A 2026 AARP and LinkedIn report found that over the past five years, workers 50 and older grew the number of AI and other new skills they listed on LinkedIn by 25% - nearly double the growth rate among younger workers.
Older workers are not falling behind. They are closing the gap faster than anyone gives them credit for. The bias is real, but it is not supported by the evidence.
You Can Do This - And Here Is Where to Start
Let go of what that last employer made you feel. Their decision was not a verdict on your worth. It was about their budget, their bias, or their timing.
Give yourself permission to pivot. Starting over in a new field is not a downgrade - it is a different door. The skills you built managing people, solving problems, and running a household transfer further than you think. I am living proof of this: I was laid off about a year ago, now at 47 years old, I just started a new job in a whole new industry. I was excited, a little nervous too, but here I am, learning & loving it.
I am not writing this post as someone reporting on a statistic from the outside. I went through my own layoff. I applied to so many jobs online and receive hundreds of emails saying they chose another candidate. Then finally a door opened - one I never saw coming, in a field I never planned for. If you are in the middle of your own version of that right now, I want you to hear it from someone who just lived it: it gets better, and the door you are waiting on may look nothing like the one you expected.
Say "show me" out loud. Willingness to learn is more impressive to employers than pretending you already know everything. It disproves the stereotype before they can lean into it.
Lean on your community. Most second-act jobs come through people who know people - not cold applications into the void. Tell your church. Tell your neighbors. Ask for prayer and ask them to think of you when they hear of openings.
Keep your faith in front of your fear. There will be weeks where you do everything right and hear nothing. I know this firsthand - I applied to roughly 20 jobs a week on LinkedIn and Indeed, and my inbox was flooded with "we went with a different candidate" replies, week after week. Those are the weeks to hold your identity somewhere other than a hiring manager's inbox.
While you wait, give yourself permission to bridge the gap. A long job search doesn't mean you have to choose between holding out for the right role and keeping the lights on — there are real, flexible ways to bring in income in the meantime:
- LinkedIn and Indeed - still the two biggest job search engines, and worth checking daily. Set up alerts so new postings come straight to you.
- Walmart Spark Driver - flexible delivery work you can do around your own schedule, no long-term commitment required.
- Amazon Flex- similar setup, deliver packages on your own hours using your own vehicle.
- DoorDash, Instacart, or Uber/Lyft - all flexible gig options if you need income while you keep searching.
- Local temp agencies - many connect you with short-term assignments that sometimes turn into full-time offers.
None of these are a step down. They are a bridge - a way to keep moving forward financially while you hold out for the right full-time door to open. There is no shame in doing what it takes to get from here to there.
You are not behind. You are not too old. You are building a new chapter, and it is allowed to look completely different than the one before it.
For High Schoolers Planning Their Future - The Full Data Chart
Wondering which careers are actually growing and which ones are disappearing? I put together a full job outlook chart using the most current U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections available.
👉 Download the full report with all 10 data charts — free →
(Link to full PDF resource)
On the days when the job market makes you feel like it's not luck, it's not your age, and it's not over - I've got a reminder for you.
The "It's Not Luck, It's Jesus" tee is for the woman who knows exactly who is holding her next chapter. And on the days when it all feels like too much? The "Bad Day? Let's Pray" tee says it better than anything else I could write.
Both are available now at staggstyles.com - made with you in mind, on the hard days and the hopeful ones.
Stay Styled in Faith, my friend. 🤍
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation, May 2026 · TN Dept. of Labor WARN Act Filings 2026 · AARP Age Discrimination in the Workforce Survey, January 2026 · AARP & LinkedIn Workforce Skills Report, March 2026 · BLS Employment Projections (most current release)