Job security is a myth. Company loyalty is a relic. The only real safety net? Building something only you can build.

The New Safety Net: Why Entrepreneurship Is Thriving as Traditional Jobs Disappear
As U.S. employers announced 1.2 million job cuts in 2025, Shopify data shows a record surge in people starting their own businesses.

The script has flipped. For decades, the conventional wisdom held that a steady 9-to-5 job was the safe bet and entrepreneurship was a risky gamble. But a wave of layoffs across corporate America, accelerated by artificial intelligence, is forcing millions to reconsider.

According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. employers announced 1.2 million job cuts in 2025, the highest total since 2020. In March alone, AI was the single most-cited reason for layoffs, accounting for one in four announced cuts.
 

Snap Inc. announced Wednesday it would cut 16% of its workforce, about 1,000 employees, with CEO Evan Spiegel explicitly tying the decision to AI-driven efficiency. The company said artificial intelligence now generates more than 65% of new software code.

Snap is not alone. In February, financial tech firm Block said it would cut 40% of its workforce, more than 4,000 employees, while pivoting to AI tools. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 80 tech companies have eliminated approximately 71,440 jobs so far this year.

The Entrepreneurial Surge

While traditional employment contracts, another path is expanding dramatically. New data from Shopify, which powers millions of online businesses across 175 countries, tells a striking story.

Since 2018, the number of Shopify merchants who have made a first sale has increased sevenfold. The platform recorded a record surge in new business creation at the start of 2026, continuing a trend that began years before.

"For anyone weighing their options, the trendlines are hard to ignore," Shopify's analysis states. "One path is expanding, the other is contracting."

Repeat Founders Get Better

The data also challenges the notion that entrepreneurship is a one-shot gamble. Merchants who have previously launched a business on Shopify and return to build a second one earn more than twice the sales per shop on average, compared to first-time founders.

This pattern aligns with academic research showing that previous founders outperform first-timers, with the performance gap widening over successive ventures.

"The first venture is the hardest, but each one after benefits from accumulated knowledge: how to find customers, how to select a market, how to run operations," Shopify's report notes. "These are skills, and they compound."

Revenue Grows Over Time

Entrepreneurs who stick with it don't just survive; they thrive. Shopify merchants who started their businesses between 2017 and 2020 saw their average sales grow by 25% from 2022 to 2025.

A significant driver is the market itself. Ecommerce has grown from 14% of global retail sales in 2019 to more than 20% in 2025. Shopify now powers more than 14% of U.S. ecommerce.

"People entering entrepreneurship today are not competing for a fixed share of economic activity," the report states. "The pie is expanding, and entrepreneurs are eating well."

The Risk Equation Has Flipped

For years, the knock on entrepreneurship was risk. The safe move was a classic 9-to-5. But that traditional path is contracting. And entrepreneurship, by every measure, is expanding.

"The data says they're right to build," Shopify concludes.

As tens of thousands of tech workers receive layoff notices, a growing number are arriving at the same conclusion: the most future-proof job is the one you create for yourself.