I started working for myself in the 1990s because it was next to impossible to find a job as a young person, and it still is (young or old).
Youth unemployment has always been around 30%, once you drill down through the faked statistics (which ignore people who're in courses but still have no job, or got temporary employment that only lasted a couple of weeks, for instance, or any other excuse to de-list them). When I was in TAFE (technical college, a tertiary school), we were told the average person would be doing course after course until they were 26 before they might find a real job. And TAFE was notorious for training courses that were out-of-touch with reality.
And anybody over 40 is too old. They want someone young enough to not object to illegal and unsafe work practices, hasn't yet stuffed their back. Is reasonably good to not need to total supervision, and not unwilling to be micromanaged.
Typical job adverts were like this:
Vacancy for a 21 year old with 7 years experience, and a diploma, in our exciting and service-driven business. Must be able to work unscheduled hours without prior warning, including weekends. Must have a driver's license. Below award trainee wages. Under- or un-paid overtime expected. Weekend work at weekday pay rates.
And the job would be serving customers in a deli. But the chances are that the job advert won't list the actual job, or the employer, or even the location.
Virtually every job wants pre-trained employees, where you've trained yourself in courses at your expense, or have been poached from some other company (yet they'll want you to sign some agreement not to work in a job in a similar industry when you leave).
Extreme loyalty is demanded, but none is given.
Courses may last several years, full-time, with hours that make meaningful employment impossible, and may be barely appropriate to the actual job. Or there'll be some two-week training course which glosses over important things (like safety and the skills you'll really need). Hands-on labour jobs will have courses that are far too academic.
A job advert will say it requires a driving license, even when driving is not any part of the job. Or a job may require you to provide your own vehicle, which you'll wear out at your own expense, your insurance won't cover your use of a private vehicle for someone else's business purposes, and they probably won't insure or imdemnify you, either. And you'll either have the only thing you can afford, a $2000 clapped-out bomb, which is a risk to you and the business. Or you'll be inadequately compensated for using a brand new car. How many other supposedly ordinary jobs, with ordinary pay, are you required to supply $40,000 worth of equipment to do their job?
The unemployed are railed against in this country, while completely glossing over the fact that there are always hundreds of thousands more people that need a job than there are jobs available. Every now and then you'll hear some employer on the news complain about not being able to get staff, but you'll find out their employment conditions are obscene. Shit wages, short-term casual work, very long hours, impossible quotas, located in the middle of nowhere, you have to pay them for accomodation (in a gross condition), and buy your food from them at inflated prices. They won't hire locals, they only want backpackers on visas, or subsidised workers from overseas. In essence, they want slaves.