You can make money online without skills, but the realistic income is modest side money, not a replacement for a full‑time job. Below are the best beginner‑friendly methods, with games ranked first, and realistic earning ranges from recent 2026 data.
Game reward apps often come up among the first answers to how do you earn money fast with no experience, and they’re one of the simplest ways to start earning. You install apps, complete in-game milestones, or play through offer walls, and get paid in cash or gift cards.
How it works: Reward apps track your gameplay time or progress in specific games. You are paid for reaching levels, winning matches, or completing missions. Many of these are “GPT” (get‑paid‑to) platforms that bundle games with other offers.
Typical earnings: Most users earn about 0.50 to 2 dollars per hour of active gameplay on reputable play‑and‑earn apps. Focused users who chase high‑paying offers can reach 3 to 7 dollars per hour, and in rare cases 8 to 12 dollars per hour when they pick the very best offers. In practice, casual players usually see 20 to 60 dollars per month, while very active users who stack multiple platforms can reach 150 to 400 dollars per month.
Pros: Very low barrier, you can earn while doing something you already enjoy, and many apps pay via PayPal or popular gift cards.
Cons: Earnings are small compared to a job, and you must avoid scammy apps that never pay or that require deposits.
Paid surveys are another easy “no‑skill” method: you answer questions about products, services, and habits, and receive small payments per survey.
How it works: Market research panels invite you to complete questionnaires. Pay depends on survey length, your demographic, and the panel’s quality.
Typical earnings per survey: Most standard online surveys pay about 0.50 to 3 dollars each, with completion times of 5 to 25 minutes. That usually works out to 2 to 5 dollars per hour for average users.
Monthly earning ranges:
Casual (1–3 hours per week): roughly 20 to 50 dollars per month in high‑demand countries.
Regular (4–8 hours per week): about 50 to 150 dollars per month.
Very active (10–15 hours+ per week across several panels): 150 to 300+ dollars per month, and in some documented cases 300 to 400 dollars for power users in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia.
Pros: No skills required, flexible timing, and payouts in cash or gift cards.
Cons: Many screen‑outs (disqualifications), low hourly rate compared to a job, and earnings depend heavily on your country and demographic.
3. Microtask sites and “doing tasks”
Microtask platforms pay you small amounts for simple online jobs like data labeling, categorizing images, checking receipts, or completing short offers. These also fit the “no skills” requirement, as instructions are provided for each task.
How it works: Sites break large projects into tiny tasks. You click through a queue and complete whatever is available: image tagging, short surveys, content rating, or small app‑related tasks.
Typical hourly earnings: Realistic averages are about 2 to 7 dollars per hour once you know how to pick decent tasks, with beginners closer to 2 to 3 dollars per hour. Many casual users who just take whatever is available report 0.50 to 2 dollars per hour.
Pros: Very flexible, no formal skills needed, lots of small tasks you can do in short sessions.
Cons: Pay is low, you must avoid weak tasks that pay only a few cents, and earnings vary a lot by platform and region.
4. Watching videos and ads
Some reward platforms pay you small amounts to watch promotional videos or ads. This is usually bundled together with other offers such as surveys, games, or app installs.
How it works: You watch short clips or ad videos and earn points that can be converted into cash or gift cards. These tasks often pay fractions of a cent per view but require no skills.
Typical earnings: Video and ad viewing usually pays less than other tasks. Reports show realistic earnings around 0.50 to 1.50 dollars per hour when combined with offers and surveys on a single platform.
Pros: Extremely easy to start and can be done while multitasking.
Cons: Very low pay; best used as a small extra on top of higher‑paying tasks.
5. Installing apps and trying offers
Offer walls pay you to install apps, sign up for trials, or reach specific in‑app milestones. These do not require skills, but they do require careful reading of conditions so you do not accidentally spend money.
How it works: You choose offers such as “install this finance app and complete registration” or “reach level 20 in this game.” Payouts are much higher than simple surveys but take more time.
Typical earnings: Some tested game and app offers can be equivalent to 5 to 15 dollars per hour if you pick the highest‑paying milestones and complete them efficiently, but many routine offers still fall into the 1 to 3 dollars per hour range.
Pros: Higher pay than passive tasks if you choose good offers.
Cons: Requires careful tracking to avoid missing conditions, and some offers are only available in certain countries.
6. Basic data entry and typing work
Entry‑level data entry or transcription roles can be done online with minimal skills if you can type accurately and follow instructions.
How it works: You type text from scanned images, short audio clips, or forms into structured templates. Many platforms provide guidelines and sample tasks so you do not need previous experience.
Typical earnings: General microtask‑level data entry usually pays around 2 to 8 dollars per hour, with higher rates reserved for more accurate or specialized workers.
Pros: Straightforward, improves your typing speed over time, and can lead to more stable remote work if you build reliability.
Cons: Repetitive, and you need to be consistent to avoid accuracy penalties.
7. Cashback and shopping rewards
If you already shop online, cashback sites and receipt‑scanning apps give you a way to earn small amounts of money back on purchases without any skills.
How it works: You shop through tracked links or upload receipts and earn a percentage back or fixed rewards per purchase.
Typical earnings: Cashback is not an hourly wage because it depends on how much you spend. Many users earn a few dollars to tens of dollars per month as a side benefit, not a dedicated income stream.
Pros: Zero extra effort beyond normal shopping, good for stacking with other methods.
Cons: Only worthwhile if you already buy those products; it is not a job.
If you have no skills and want to start today, the most realistic approach is to combine games and surveys as your primary earning methods, then add microtasks or app offers once you understand your pace and which platforms you like. Games and surveys are easy to start and can reliably pay small but real amounts when you use legitimate platforms with clear payout rules.
Somewhere in a basement bin at your local thrift store is a rock in a box. A literal rock, sitting in a nest of straw, complete with its own birth certificate and care instructions. Somebody’s grandmother paid four dollars for it in 1975, laughed about it for a few months, then put it in a drawer for fifty years. That’s the thing about the 70s. Half of what people bought as a joke or a fad turned out to be worth keeping, and now it’s sitting in attics and yard sale boxes waiting for someone who knows what they’re looking at.
This was the decade of the mood swing collectible economy: pet rocks, bionic men, Star Wars figures nobody expected to matter, and kitchenware so common it’s still turning up in every third estate sale in the country. Most of it is worth a modest amount. Some of it, if the details line up right, is worth a genuine windfall.
Here are 18 things that were everywhere in the 1970s and are worth a second look before they go in the donation pile.
If you’ve ever found a smooth gray stone packaged in a little cardboard carrier with air holes punched in the side, don’t laugh it off. That’s Gary Dahl’s 1975 marketing stunt, the Pet Rock, and it’s one of the most recognizable novelty items of the decade. It came with a tongue-in-cheek training manual and a bed of straw, packaged to look exactly like a pet carrier.
Most surviving examples are common. Complete sets with the original box, straw, and training booklet in good condition typically bring $20 to $40, occasionally more if the box graphics are crisp and unfaded. Loose rocks without packaging are worth next to nothing, since the joke was always the presentation and not the rock itself.
Reproductions exist, including a modern relaunch from a toy company that bought the rights a few years back, so check for the original Rock Bottom Productions markings and a genuinely aged box before assuming you have the real thing. It’s a low dollar item, but a fun and easy one to spot.
2. Farrah Fawcett red swimsuit poster, 1976
Image Credit: MemPicks via eBay
This one is instantly recognizable even to people who’ve never seen a full episode of the show that made her famous. The 1976 poster of Farrah Fawcett in a red one-piece swimsuit went on to sell more than twelve million copies, making it the best selling poster of all time. If your parents or grandparents had a dorm room or a garage wall in the late 70s, there’s a real chance one of these hung there.
Genuine 1976 originals in clean, uncreased condition with strong color typically bring $40 to $90, with pristine, never-folded examples pushing higher. Reproductions are extremely common, since the image has been reprinted officially and unofficially for decades, so check for the 1976 copyright line and the catalog number printed on the sheet itself.
Condition drives the value here more than almost anything else on this list. Creasing, fading, tape residue, and pinholes all knock the price down fast, since this was a wall poster and most surviving copies show it.
3. Avon Cape Cod ruby glass collection
Image Credit: 1awesomesauce via eBay
Somewhere in nearly every grandmother’s china cabinet from the late 1970s through the 1990s sat a piece or two of deep red pressed glass from Avon’s Cape Cod collection. It wasn’t sold as cosmetics. Avon introduced it in 1975 as a home décor and giftware line, and representatives sold everything from goblets to candlesticks to full dinner sets through their catalogs for the next two decades.
Individual pieces are genuinely common and modest in value. Standard goblets, plates, and small bowls typically bring $10 to $35 each in clean condition with no chips. The real money is in volume and rarity. A large pedestal cake plate or a complete matched dinner set with original boxes can push well past that, and full collections assembled piece by piece over years are worth pricing as a set rather than selling off individually.
Check for chips along the rims and hobnail edges, since this was everyday glass in a lot of households and it got used. The ruby color should be even and rich, not faded or cloudy, which usually signals sun damage or years in a dishwasher.
4. Original Lava Lite lava lamp
Image Credit: RRResale, LLC via eBay
The lava lamp goes back to a British inventor in the early 1960s, but it became a full blown American bedroom fixture in the 1970s once Lava Lite Corporation started mass producing them out of Chicago. A metal base, a glass globe, and slow moving colored wax suspended in liquid, it’s one of the most recognizable pieces of 70s decor there is.
Working examples from the 1970s in good condition, with the original base and no cracks in the globe, typically bring $40 to $100, with rarer colorways and larger sizes bringing more. A lamp that no longer flows properly is worth considerably less even if it looks fine sitting still, so plug it in and let it warm up before pricing it.
Check the base for the manufacturer’s stamp and look closely at the wax and liquid for clarity. Cloudy liquid, separated wax, or a cracked globe all reduce value significantly, and these lamps were built to run for hours at a time, so most surviving examples show some wear.
5. 1976 Bicentennial quarter, 40 percent silver
Image Credit: redondoguy via eBay
Every quarter minted in 1975 and 1976 carries the double date 1776 to 1976 and a colonial drummer on the reverse, part of the Mint’s celebration of the country’s 200th birthday. Most of these are ordinary clad quarters worth face value. The ones worth checking twice are the special 40 percent silver versions struck at the San Francisco mint for collector sets, which have a duller edge and a warmer gray tone than a regular quarter.
A typical silver Bicentennial quarter in average uncirculated or proof condition brings roughly $9 to $15, mostly reflecting its silver content plus a small collector premium. Certified examples in exceptional, near flawless condition can bring hundreds of dollars, and a small handful of documented doubled die and off metal error coins have brought four and five figure prices, though those are genuine needle in a haystack finds.
Look for the letter S below the date for San Francisco mint coins, and check the edge for a visible copper stripe. A copper stripe means clad. No stripe and a grayer color usually means silver.
6. View-Master with reels, 1970s
Image Credit: chichimio via eBay
Every kid in the 1970s seemed to own one of these plastic stereoscopic viewers, usually the colorful Model G, along with a shoebox of circular reels covering everything from national parks to cartoon characters. You held it up to the light, clicked the lever, and the flat picture snapped into 3D.
Most basic viewers and generic reel packets are common and inexpensive, typically bringing $10 to $30 for a working viewer with a handful of reels in decent shape. The real value shows up in complete boxed gift sets tied to popular television and movie licenses, which can bring well over $100 depending on the character and the condition of the box.
Check that the lenses aren’t scratched or hazy and that the lever advances smoothly, since a viewer that doesn’t work is worth very little regardless of how nice it looks. Reels with red or magenta discoloration have degraded film and are worth less than reels with clean, saturated color.
7. Holly Hobbie rag doll, Knickerbocker
Image Credit: Nova Kits Vintage Shop via eBay
Holly Hobbie started as an artist’s greeting card design before Knickerbocker Toy Company licensed the character for a line of rag dolls in 1975. The quiet little girl in the oversized bonnet and patchwork dress became one of the defining soft toys of the decade, sold in several sizes alongside her friends and her brother.
Loose, played-with dolls in decent shape with intact stitching and only minor fading typically bring $20 to $40, while dolls still in their original packaging or in exceptional, unplayed condition can reach $60 to $100 or more depending on size. The larger versions and complete doll and playset combinations bring the most.
Check the fabric for stains, sun fading, and loose stitching at the seams, since these were cloth dolls made for kids to actually play with. A missing hair bow or a mended dress arm is common and only lightly affects value, but a torn or heavily faded face print brings the price down significantly.
8. McDonald’s 1977 Collector Series glass
Image Credit: Shop Morris ReStore via eBay
Before Happy Meal toys took over as McDonald’s main promotional giveaway, the chain sold a set of drinking glasses through its restaurants featuring characters like Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Big Mac. The 1977 Collector Series is the one to look for, distinguished from later reissues by its slightly heavier glass and specific character artwork.
Individual glasses in good condition, free of chips and with the paint still bright, typically bring $10 to $25 each, and a complete matched set of six can bring $50 to $80. Earlier prototype and test market glasses, made in smaller numbers before the main series launched, are considerably scarcer and have brought several hundred dollars apiece.
Wash these by hand rather than in a dishwasher if you plan to keep or sell them, since the painted designs fade and flake with repeated hot water and detergent exposure. Check for chips on the rim and base, which are common on glassware this age and cut into the price fast.
9. Kenner Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin figure, 1975
Image Credit: Moviebilia via eBay
Lee Majors made bionic strength a household concept, and Kenner turned Steve Austin into one of the best selling action figures of the decade. The 1975 original came with a rolled up rubber skin sleeve on his arm that you could peel back to reveal bionic circuitry underneath, along with a red jogging suit and a removable engine block he could lift.
Loose figures with the skin sleeve intact and most of the original outfit typically bring $75 to $100, while examples still in the original box can bring $240 to $320 or more. Later variants with the bionic grip feature or the rarer biosonic arm bring considerably more than the standard 1975 release.
The skin sleeve is the piece most likely to be missing or damaged, since kids peeled it constantly, and its condition affects value more than almost anything else on the figure. Check that the telescoping eye still works and that the back button still triggers the bionic sound effect.
10. Ideal Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, 1970s
Image Credit: Heritage Auctions
Evel Knievel was one of the biggest names in American pop culture through the mid 1970s, and Ideal Toy Company’s wind up Stunt Cycle became the toy every kid on the block wanted for Christmas. You clicked the small figure onto the motorcycle, wound the energizer, and released him to launch off whatever ramp you’d built out of couch cushions.
Played with, working examples with the original box typically bring $50 to $250 depending on completeness and how clean the graphics are. Unopened examples in a near mint box are the real prize here, with documented sales well over $1,000.
Reproduction boxes have shown up on the secondary market, so check the printing quality and color saturation against reference photos before paying a premium for anything claiming to be sealed. Missing energizer pull cords and cracked plastic on the figure’s helmet are common issues that bring the price down on played with examples.
11. Pyrex Spring Blossom Green mixing bowl set
Image Credit: The Retro Retail via eBay
Nicknamed Crazy Daisy by collectors, this green flowered pattern on white glass ran from 1972 through the late 70s and was one of the most common Pyrex patterns of the decade. It showed up as nesting mixing bowls, casserole dishes, and serving pieces in kitchens across the country, which means there’s a real chance a piece of it is sitting in a cabinet somewhere near you right now.
A complete, unchipped three or four piece nesting bowl set in good condition typically brings $50 to $90, with individual bowls selling for less on their own. The largest bowl in the set and complete casserole dishes with their original lids tend to bring the most.
Check the bottom for the Pyrex Corning mark and examine the pattern closely for scratching from years of stirring and scraping, which dulls the paint and reduces value. Reproduction patterns inspired by this exact design have been sold in recent years, so compare any suspiciously bright example against reference photos of the original.
12. Atari 2600 console, complete in box
Image Credit: brocozo via eBay
Atari’s home console launched in September 1977 and eventually sold more than 30 million units, making it the console most likely to turn up at an estate sale packed in a wood grain box in someone’s basement. The earliest units, nicknamed the Heavy Sixer for their weightier build and six front switches, are the ones worth the most.
A complete Heavy Sixer in its original box, with controllers and cables, in good working condition typically brings $350 or more, while the later, more common four switch models sold loose and untested bring closer to $30 to $55. Games sold separately, and a handful of rare cartridges from small or defunct publishers can be worth far more than the console itself.
Test the console before assuming it works, since decades of storage can degrade internal connections. A complete set with the original box, manual, and both joystick and paddle controllers is worth significantly more than a bare console, so keep everything together if you find it as a lot.
13. Mego KISS dolls, 1978
Image Credit: Retrodimestore via eBay
Mego made action figure versions of just about everyone in the late 70s, but the 1978 KISS set, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss in full stage makeup, remains one of the most sought after music licensed toys of the decade. Each figure stood about 12 inches tall with cloth outfits and molded makeup faces.
A complete loose set of all four figures in decent played with condition, with most of the original clothing and accessories intact, typically brings $150 to $350. Sets that remain sealed in their original boxes, never removed, are the true grail here and have brought well over $1,500 for a complete matched set.
Check the knee and elbow joints carefully, since these tend to loosen or crack with age, and look at the face paint for rubbing or fading from friction inside old toy boxes. Missing armbands and boots are common and worth replacing if you plan to sell, since a complete outfit brings meaningfully more than a bare figure.
14. Vintage Levi’s 501 Big E jeans
Image Credit: Samurai Picks Japan via eBay
Levi’s changed the capitalization on its red tab logo from a big E to a lowercase e in 1971, which gives collectors an easy way to date a pair of 501s at a glance. Jeans made before that switch, especially ones with the visible red line selvedge running down the outer seam, are the ones worth pulling off the rack at a thrift store.
Big E 501s from the late 1960s and early 1970s in wearable condition typically bring $50 to $250 depending on size, fading, and how much repair work they need, with unusual sizes and pristine examples pushing well past that. Pairs with heavy custom fading or noteworthy wear patterns can be worth more to some buyers than pristine ones, since the denim resale market prizes character as much as condition.
Check the back of the button fly buttons for a stamped E, and look for the red selvedge line inside the cuff, which confirms shuttle loom denim from before 1984. Rips at the crotch and knee are the most common dealbreakers, since repairs there are visible and reduce resale value.
15. Sony Walkman TPS-L2, 1979
Image Credit: SHOP_NINJA_TOKYO via eBay
Sony’s first Walkman went on sale in Japan in the summer of 1979 and reached American shelves the following year, and it’s genuinely the device that changed how people listened to music. The blue and silver TPS-L2, distinguished from later models by its metal case and dual headphone jacks meant for sharing, is the one collectors specifically hunt for.
Tested, working examples in good cosmetic condition typically bring $560 to $950, and fully restored or mint examples with the original box and accessories have brought close to $2,850. A non-working unit is worth considerably less, since most buyers want a Walkman they can actually use.
The internal belts in these units degrade with age and are the most common reason one stops working, so factor a service cost into any purchase price if functionality isn’t already confirmed. Look specifically for the TPS-L2 model number stamped on the back, since later Walkman models look similar but carry far less value.
16. Kenner Star Wars Jawa, vinyl cape variant, 1978
Image Credit: Heritage Auctions
The standard Jawa figure from Kenner’s original Star Wars line is genuinely common. Millions of kids owned one, wrapped in a soft brown cloth cape, and loose examples today bring a modest $40 to $60. This entry exists for one specific, very early production variant, and it’s worth knowing about because the difference is almost invisible at a glance.
A small early batch of Jawas shipped with a cape made of vinyl instead of cloth, before Kenner switched materials because the vinyl looked cheap and degraded quickly. That handful of vinyl cape figures is now one of the most valuable pieces in the entire vintage Star Wars market, with loose examples bringing $2,500 to $3,000 and carded, unpunched examples reaching well into five figures.
Reproduction vinyl capes exist and have fooled experienced collectors, so any example claiming to be original should be verified against known reference photos before you get excited. For the overwhelming majority of people who find a Jawa in a toy box, it will be the common cloth version, and that’s still a fun, honestly modest find rather than a windfall.
17. Schwinn Sting-Ray Krate bicycle, 1968 to 1973
Image Credit: don_juan1961 via eBay
Schwinn’s Krate line took the already popular Sting-Ray and dressed it up like a miniature chopper motorcycle, complete with a banana seat, a stick shift style gear lever, and a fat slick rear tire. The Orange Krate, Apple Krate, Lemon Peeler, and Pea Picker were the original four colorways, and Schwinn only made them for about five years before discontinuing the line.
Original, unrestored examples in solid, largely complete condition typically bring $800 to $2,000, and exceptional, low mileage originals with correct paint and decals have brought close to $3,000. Reproduction and remanufactured Krates have been sold since the 1990s and are worth a small fraction of an original, so serial numbers and frame details matter enormously here.
Check the seat, grips, and tires for correct period parts, since replaced components reduce value even when they’re reasonably close matches. A bike that’s been repainted, even carefully, is worth considerably less to serious collectors than one with original, honestly worn paint.
18. Vintage 1970s rock concert t-shirt
Image Credit: The Captain’s Vintage via eBay
Single stitch tour shirts from the 1970s, sold at the show or through mail order for major touring acts, are some of the most quietly valuable textiles from the decade. Most were worn hard, washed constantly, and eventually thrown out, which is exactly why the surviving examples matter to collectors now.
A genuine, single stitch tour shirt in decent, honestly worn condition typically brings $150 to $750 depending on the band, the tour, and how legible the print still is. Early, rare tour runs from major acts have brought well into four figures at the extreme end, though those results are genuine outliers rather than what most shirts bring.
Reproductions and modern licensed reprints are extremely common, so check the tag for a period appropriate brand and look for the flatter, softer screen print typical of the era rather than the thick, glossy ink used on modern reprints. A shirt that’s been through decades of washing should show it, in fading and thinning fabric, not look suspiciously crisp.
Most of what turns up from this decade is worth a modest amount, and that’s fine. The occasional exception, tucked in a box in someone’s attic, is exactly why it’s worth looking twice before anything goes to the curb.
In January 2026, the average Social Security retirement check went up by $56 a month. Almost a third of that raise disappeared before it ever hit a bank account, because the standard Medicare Part B premium jumped by $17.90 that same month, and that premium comes straight out of the check.
That wasn’t a one-year fluke. In 2024, Medicare’s premium grew faster than the Social Security raise. In 2025, it grew faster again. In 2026, it grew nearly twice as fast. Three years running, retirees on traditional Medicare watched a chunk of their cost-of-living increase get quietly absorbed before they ever saw it.
New projections suggest 2027 could break that streak, and for once, the numbers might tilt back in retirees’ favor.
The pattern has been consistent enough to set a watch by. In 2024, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment came in at 3.2%, while the standard Medicare Part B premium rose by 5.9%, nearly double the rate of the benefit increase.
2025 followed the same script. The COLA landed at 2.5%, and Part B climbed another 5.9%. Then 2026 made the gap worse. The COLA slipped to 2.8%, but Part B jumped 9.7%, the second-largest dollar increase in the premium’s history.
For someone collecting an average retirement benefit, that meant the Part B increase alone swallowed roughly a third of January’s raise, before the deductible went up too. If your deposit felt smaller than the notice promised, you weren’t imagining it.
Part of the mismatch comes down to how differently the two numbers are built. The COLA tracks general inflation. The Part B premium is set separately each year based on projected Medicare spending, and regulators have pointed to projected price changes and rising utilization as the main driver behind the recent hikes. Those two forces don’t have to move together, and for three years running, they haven’t.
What’s projected to change in 2027
Image Credit: Shutterstock
The newest Medicare projections put the 2027 standard Part B premium at $209.50 a month, up from 2026’s $202.90. That’s a jump of $6.60, or about 3.3%, a fraction of the increases retirees have absorbed over the past three years.
Meanwhile, current Social Security COLA forecasts sit in the 3.6% to 3.8% range, several times larger than the projected premium increase. Run those numbers against an average retired worker’s benefit of roughly $2,081 a month, and a 3.8% raise would add close to $79. Subtract the $6.60 premium increase, and a retiree could keep more than 90% of the raise, a sharp turnaround from 2026, when the premium alone took nearly a third of it.
That’s the shift driving all the attention. For the first time since these premium hikes started outpacing benefit increases, the gap could run the other direction.
Why the premium jump looks so much smaller this time
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Part of 2026’s unusually steep Part B increase came down to a specific and expensive corner of Medicare spending, on advanced wound care products that had ballooned in cost in recent years. Regulators moved to rein in that spending starting in 2026, and the 2027 premium projection reflects a return to something closer to Medicare’s typical yearly cost growth.
That doesn’t mean Part B premiums are getting cheap. Longer-range estimates put the premium climbing well past $300 a month within a decade, driven by the same forces pushing up health care costs everywhere. But for 2027 specifically, the increase is shaping up to be closer to a normal year than the past two.
Part D isn’t standing still either. The projected 2027 prescription drug deductible is set at $700, up from $615, and the out-of-pocket catastrophic threshold is rising to $2,400. Those costs don’t come out of a Social Security check directly, but they’re worth factoring into any 2027 health care budget.
The COLA estimate is still moving around
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Every one of these 2027 numbers is a projection, and the Social Security estimate in particular has swung hard already this year. Early in the summer, one independent forecast spiked as high as 4.7% on a run of hot inflation data. By July, cooling price growth had pulled that same estimate down to 3.7%, while a separate nonpartisan estimate has held closer to 3.8%.
That volatility is normal. The COLA formula only locks in once third-quarter inflation data for July, August, and September is finalized, so anything published before October is an educated guess, some more educated than others. A cooler estimate isn’t necessarily bad news for retirees. It usually means prices rose less over the summer, which matters more to a monthly budget than the size of a number on a notice.
Nothing is official until the fall
Image Credit: Shutterstock
The following year’s COLA is typically announced in mid-October, based on that third-quarter inflation data. Medicare’s Part B premium for 2027 won’t be official until it’s released, usually in mid-November. That timing has held for the past two cycles: the 2026 premium was released on November 14, 2025, and the 2025 premium came out on November 8, 2024.
Until both of those numbers are locked in, treat every figure in this article as a planning estimate, not a guarantee. The projected Part B premium could shift if health care spending trends change between now and November, and the COLA could move again if fall inflation data surprises in either direction. Most beneficiaries get their own updated benefit amount by mail or through their online account in early December, which is the first personalized confirmation of what 2027 actually looks like for a specific check.
What this means for your 2027 budget
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Don’t rebuild a spending plan around $209.50 or 3.8% just yet. Both numbers can still move before they’re finalized. What’s reasonable to expect right now is a 2027 raise that holds up noticeably better than the last three years did, with Medicare taking a much smaller slice than it has been.
It’s also worth checking where your own premium falls. Higher earners pay well above the standard rate under Medicare’s income-related surcharge, so a 2027 adjustment would move a bigger dollar amount for those households than for someone paying the base premium. Once the COLA is confirmed in October and the Part B premium is confirmed in November, that’s the moment to run your own numbers and adjust anything that depends on next year’s check.
For three years, the raise and the Medicare bill moved in opposite directions. Right now, the projections say 2027 might finally let retirees keep pace.
A cashier rings up your groceries today. The federal government’s own numbers say roughly 314,000 of those jobs won’t exist anymore by 2034.
That figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official employment projections for 2024 through 2034, the same data the government uses to plan workforce programs. Cashiers aren’t even the fastest shrinking job on the list. That title goes to word processors and typists, an occupation expected to lose more than a third of its workforce in the same span.
Most of these declines happen gradually, through fewer new hires and slower replacement of retiring workers, rather than sudden mass layoffs. Even so, the pattern has been building for years and shows no sign of reversing. The World Economic Forum’s own employer survey points to the same clerical and administrative jobs shrinking fastest worldwide through 2030, a strong signal this trend keeps running well past the next decade.
Self-checkout lanes were the start. Now stores are testing frictionless checkout, where cameras and sensors track what you grab and bill you automatically without a register at all.
Cashier employment is projected to fall by roughly 314,000 jobs from 2024 to 2034, the single largest numeric decline of any occupation the government tracks. That’s not a percentage buried in a footnote. It’s the biggest job loss, period, out of hundreds of occupations in the federal employment matrix.
Cashiering isn’t disappearing everywhere at once. Small grocery stores, gas stations, and specialty shops will keep hiring people to run registers for years. But big chain retailers have every incentive to keep cutting headcount at checkout, and the trend line only points one direction.
Retail trade as a whole is one of only four sectors expected to lose jobs over the decade, and cashiers account for the largest single piece of that shrinkage. The retailers still growing are mostly the ones investing in delivery, logistics, and warehouse jobs instead of front-of-store staff, which means the openings in retail are shifting location as much as they’re shrinking in number.
Bank tellers
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Walk into a bank branch today and you’ll notice something. There are fewer teller windows than there used to be, and more of them sit empty.
Employment of tellers is projected to decline 13 percent from 2024 to 2034, driven mostly by mobile check deposits and improved ATM technology that lets people handle routine transactions without ever talking to a person. Some banks now use video kiosks so a teller working from one location can help customers at several different branches through a screen, instead of every branch needing its own dedicated teller behind the counter.
The job isn’t gone. About 29,800 openings are still expected each year, mostly to replace tellers who retire or move into other roles. But the total number of teller jobs in America keeps shrinking every year, and there’s no sign that trend reverses.
The bigger shift is what tellers do all day. Fewer customers ever need to stand in front of a window for a routine deposit or withdrawal, so the tellers who remain increasingly handle the transactions that require judgment, like flagging a suspicious check or walking a customer through a new account. Branch banking hasn’t disappeared, but it needs far fewer hands than it used to.
Word processors and typists
Image Credit: Shutterstock
If you’ve never heard of this job, that’s part of the point. It used to be common in offices everywhere, and now it’s vanishing faster than any other occupation the government tracks.
Word processors and typists is projected to shrink 36.1 percent from 2024 to 2034, the steepest decline of any of the more than 800 detailed occupations in the federal employment matrix. Voice dictation software, AI writing tools, and the simple fact that most professionals now type their own documents have all but erased the need for a dedicated typing pool.
This one is close to a case study in how technology slowly kills a job. It didn’t happen through one dramatic announcement. Word processing software chipped away at typing pools through the 1980s and 90s, and AI is finishing what that first wave of automation started.
The numbers are small in absolute terms, about 40,000 people currently hold this job title, dropping to roughly 25,600 by 2034, but the rate of decline is what makes it stand out. No other occupation the government tracks is shrinking faster on a percentage basis, which says less about the size of the job and more about how completely the underlying task has been automated.
Telephone operators
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Directory assistance used to be a real job. You’d dial a number, an operator would look up a listing, and you’d get connected. Almost nobody does that anymore.
Telephone operators are projected to see employment fall 27.5 percent from 2024 to 2034, making it one of the fastest shrinking jobs the government tracks. Smartphones put every phone number and business listing a few taps away, and most companies replaced human directory assistance with automated systems years ago.
What’s left of this occupation mostly serves niche needs, like international calling assistance or specialized business lines, where a person still adds value. For most everyday uses, the job that once connected callers to numbers has been replaced by search engines and apps that do the same thing instantly and for free.
Call a company’s main line today and you’ll usually hit an automated menu before you ever reach a person. That wasn’t always the case, and the job responsible for routing those calls by hand is disappearing fast.
Switchboard operators, including answering services, are projected to decline 26.3 percent from 2024 to 2034. Automated phone trees, cloud-based phone systems, and virtual receptionist software now handle most of the routing that a human operator used to do, and businesses have embraced the cost savings.
Answering services for medical offices, law firms, and small businesses still employ some switchboard operators, since certain callers want a live person instead of a menu of button options. But even that niche is shrinking as AI-powered virtual assistants get better at sounding human and handling routine requests without involving a person at all.
Scan a form today and software can often read every field on it correctly without a person retyping a single line. That single shift has quietly hollowed out an entire occupation.
Data entry keyers are projected to decline 25.9 percent from 2024 to 2034. Optical character recognition and automated data capture tools can now pull information directly from scanned documents, invoices, and forms with minimal human review, cutting deep into a job that used to be a common entry point into office work.
This decline has been building for a long time, and it’s accelerating rather than slowing down. Every new wave of software, from basic scanning tools to today’s AI-powered document processing, chips away at what’s left of the occupation. The remaining jobs increasingly involve reviewing what the software got wrong, not typing from scratch.
The robocall you hung up on last week might not have had a human on the other end at all. That’s part of why this job keeps shrinking.
Telemarketer employment is projected to fall 22.1 percent from 2024 to 2034. Strict do-not-call regulations already cut into the pool of people willing to answer unknown numbers, and AI-powered voice systems can now handle basic sales scripts and lead qualification without paying a human caller.
Live telemarketers haven’t vanished completely, especially for complex sales calls that require real persuasion or handling objections on the fly. But the routine cold-calling work that used to employ hundreds of thousands of people is increasingly split between automated dialers and a shrinking pool of live callers who mostly step in when the bot hits a wall.
The occupation currently employs about 67,400 people, a number projected to drop to roughly 52,500 by 2034. It’s a sizable chunk of the workforce for a job that most people assume already runs almost entirely on autopilot, which shows how much of the calling volume out there is still handled by a person reading from a script.
Order clerks
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Open a food delivery app or an online store and place an order without ever speaking to a single person. That’s become the default, not the exception.
Order clerks are projected to decline 17.2 percent from 2024 to 2034, and the fact that so many orders now come in through apps and self-checkout-style systems is largely why. Whether it’s a restaurant app, an online retailer’s checkout page, or a grocery delivery service, customers now place most orders themselves without ever speaking to a clerk.
This shift happened fast in some industries and slower in others. Restaurants that once relied heavily on phone orders have pushed hard toward apps and online menus, partly to cut labor costs and partly because customers now expect it. The clerks who remain tend to handle the orders too complicated or unusual for a self-service system to manage.
Order clerks sit inside a broader information clerk category that’s also losing ground, though not as fast. The government still projects about 149,200 openings a year across information clerk jobs, mostly from people leaving the field rather than new positions being created, which is a pattern showing up across almost every occupation on this list.
Payroll and timekeeping clerks
Image Credit: Shutterstock
A single payroll platform can now calculate hours, overtime, and tax withholding for an entire company with barely any manual review, something that used to require a whole team working spreadsheets by hand.
Payroll and timekeeping clerks are projected to see employment fall 16.7 percent from 2024 to 2034. A lot of companies have also shifted to outsourced payroll providers that get the job done with a fraction of the in-house staff it used to take, on top of the software doing more of the calculating itself.
The job hasn’t disappeared, since someone still needs to review the numbers, handle exceptions, and answer employee questions about their paychecks. But the sheer volume of manual work that used to justify a full department of payroll clerks has shrunk dramatically, and automated systems keep getting better at catching errors before a human ever sees them.
Employment here is projected to fall from about 161,100 jobs in 2024 to roughly 134,200 by 2034, a loss of 27,000 positions. Companies aren’t cutting these roles because payroll is less important. They’re cutting them because one clerk with the right software can now do what used to take several people.
File clerks
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Most offices don’t keep rows of filing cabinets stuffed with paper anymore. The paperwork moved to the cloud, and a big chunk of the job that once managed it went with it.
File clerks are projected to decline 15.9 percent from 2024 to 2034. Cloud-based document storage and electronic filing systems have replaced physical recordkeeping in most industries, and the software that manages digital files lets other office workers absorb tasks that used to require a dedicated file clerk.
Healthcare, legal, and government offices still generate plenty of paperwork, and some move slower toward fully digital systems than other industries. But even in those fields, the trend points toward scanning documents once and storing them electronically rather than keeping a physical filing system that needs a person to maintain it.
Before anything gets printed, someone has to check that the text and images line up correctly on the page. That job is shrinking as the print industry itself shrinks.
Prepress technicians and workers are projected to see employment decline 14.6 percent from 2024 to 2034. Desktop publishing software lets designers handle much of the prepress work themselves now, and the broader decline in print media, from newspapers to catalogs, has reduced the overall volume of work available in the field.
Specialty printing, packaging, and high-end publishing still need skilled prepress workers who understand color accuracy and print production. But the days of large prepress departments at every newspaper and print shop are over, and the industry that remains is smaller and more specialized than it used to be.
Government data shows the occupation falling from about 26,200 jobs in 2024 to roughly 22,300 by 2034. It’s a smaller occupation than most others on this list, but the decline tracks closely with the broader shrinkage of print media that’s been underway for two decades now.
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks
Image Credit: Shutterstock
A small business owner can connect a bank account directly to accounting software today and watch invoices and receipts sort themselves automatically. That kind of tracking used to be somebody’s entire job.
Employment of bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks is projected to decline 6 percent from 2024 to 2034. As organizations increasingly rely on specialized accounting software, the same amount of financial recordkeeping gets done with fewer people, and that’s expected to keep pushing employment down through the next decade.
There’s still real demand here. About 170,000 openings for bookkeeping and accounting clerks are projected each year, mostly to replace people who retire or move into other roles. It’s a shrinking occupation, not a vanishing one, and the clerks who stick around increasingly need to know how to use the software rather than just keep records the old fashioned way.
It’s worth noting how this compares to the sharper declines elsewhere on this list. A 6 percent drop sounds mild next to word processors losing 36 percent of their jobs, and that gap says something real. The more a job depends on judgment, even basic judgment about which numbers look off, the more it tends to survive automation intact.
Customer service representatives
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Try to reach a real person at most companies these days and you’ll probably talk to a chatbot first. That’s not an accident.
Customer service representative employment is projected to decline 5 percent from 2024 to 2034, a loss of roughly 154,000 jobs. Chatbots, mobile apps, automated phone menus, and self-service portals can now resolve a lot of basic questions that used to require a live representative, and retail in particular has leaned hard into automating this work.
Human reps aren’t going away completely. Complicated billing disputes, insurance claims, and account problems still tend to need a person who can think through an unusual situation. About 341,700 openings are still projected each year in this field, mostly from turnover. But the easy, repetitive calls that used to fill most of a rep’s day are increasingly handled by software instead.
This is also one of the biggest occupations in the entire country, with roughly 2.8 million people currently working as customer service representatives. A 5 percent decline against a number that large still means tens of thousands of fewer jobs available to the next generation of workers, even though the percentage looks modest compared to some smaller occupations on this list.
Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators
Image Credit: Shutterstock
When your car gets dinged in a parking lot, the person assessing the damage might increasingly be an algorithm looking at photos you uploaded yourself.
This is one of the clearer examples of AI directly replacing a specific task rather than just supporting it. Insurers still need adjusters for complex claims, disputes, and situations involving fraud or unusual damage. But routine auto and property claims are increasingly processed with far less human involvement than they were even five years ago, and that shift shows up directly in the government’s own employment numbers.
The pay in this field is decent, with a median annual wage of $76,790, which makes the decline notable. This isn’t a low-wage clerical job getting automated away. It’s a solidly middle-class career that AI tools are starting to compress from the inside, one task at a time.
Medical transcriptionists
Image Credit: Shutterstock
A doctor can now speak directly into a device and watch accurate text appear on the screen in real time. That leaves a lot less work for a transcriptionist waiting to type it up later.
Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to decline roughly 5 percent from 2024 to 2034, a loss of about 2,200 jobs nationwide. Software that turns spoken words into accurate text almost instantly means a doctor can finish documenting a visit before ever leaving the exam room, without waiting on a transcriptionist to type it up hours or days later.
The job hasn’t disappeared. About 7,400 openings are still projected each year, mostly to replace workers who leave the field. What’s changed is the nature of the work itself. Today’s transcriptionists spend more time reviewing and correcting AI-generated drafts than typing from scratch, which means the skills that keep someone employed here look very different than they did a decade ago.
The median annual wage sits at $37,550, and workers who specialize in complex fields like radiology or pathology, where accuracy still matters enormously, tend to have better job security than generalists doing routine dictation that speech software already handles well.
Legal secretaries
Image Credit: ALDI
Legal software can now generate, format, and file a lot of the paperwork that a dedicated secretary once prepared by hand, and paralegals are increasingly the ones running that software instead.
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants are projected to see employment decline 5.8 percent from 2024 to 2034. Legal technology now lets paralegals and legal assistants handle tasks, like preparing filings and managing case documents, that used to require a dedicated legal secretary, and firms have consolidated those roles to cut costs.
Medical secretaries are actually growing as healthcare expands, and general secretarial work isn’t shrinking as fast. But legal secretaries specifically face a sharper decline than most other administrative roles, because the technology built for law firms keeps eating into the tasks that used to justify a dedicated position.
The occupation currently employs about 156,300 people, a figure projected to drop to roughly 147,300 by 2034, a loss of about 9,000 jobs. It’s a smaller decline in raw numbers than some other roles on this list, but it stands out because most secretarial and administrative work overall is holding roughly steady, not falling.
Broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys
Image Credit: Shutterstock
That friendly voice on your local radio station might get replaced by an AI-generated one that never calls in sick or asks for a raise.
Employment of broadcast announcers and radio disc jockeys is projected to decline 5.5 percent from 2024 to 2034. Radio and TV station ownership has been consolidating into fewer, larger companies for years, and each merger tends to mean one on-air staffer covering shifts that used to belong to several different local announcers. AI-generated voice technology is now adding a new layer of pressure on top of that, making it cheaper for stations to automate parts of their programming altogether.
Live, local radio personalities still matter to a lot of listeners, especially for morning shows and community events where personality and local knowledge count for something. But as station ownership keeps consolidating and AI voice tools keep improving, fewer stations will need a full roster of human announcers to fill the airtime.
The median hourly wage for broadcast announcers was $21.96 as of 2024, and about 3,800 openings a year are projected across the broader announcer and DJ category, mostly from people leaving for other work. It’s not a career disappearing overnight, but the on-air roles that once anchored small and mid-size markets keep getting harder to find.
Office machine operators, except computer
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Fax machines, addressing machines, mail-processing equipment, most offices don’t run this hardware anymore, and the job that meant operating it barely exists either.
Office machine operators, except computer, are projected to decline 15.2 percent from 2024 to 2034. This occupation covers workers whose entire job was running that kind of specialized equipment, hardware that has largely been replaced by digital workflows and general-purpose computers.
It’s one of the clearest examples of an entire category of equipment, and the jobs built around it, becoming obsolete. As offices keep digitizing everything from mail processing to document handling, the specialized machines that once required a dedicated operator keep disappearing, and so do the jobs that came with them.
Employment here is projected to drop from about 25,500 jobs in 2024 to roughly 21,600 by 2034. It’s a small, largely invisible occupation to most people, which makes sense. The whole point of these machines was to run quietly in the background of an office, and now even that background role is disappearing.
Bottom line before you plan your next career move
Image Credit: Shutterstock
None of these jobs are disappearing overnight, and most still offer years of steady work for the people doing them right now. But if you’re choosing a career path today, these numbers are worth knowing before you commit years to a job that’s already shrinking.
Child support is one of the most important forms of financial protection for children born in divorced or separated families in the United States. According to a recent report from the United States Census Bureau, nearly one-quarter of all children under the age of 21 live in a one-parent family, while their other parent lives separately. This makes child support critical for many families.
According to preliminary FY 2024 data from the federal Office of Child Support Services, state child support agencies distributed $29.5 billion in total collections (IV-D and non-IV-D combined). $28.6 billion of that, roughly 97%, went directly to families rather than reimbursing public assistance costs.
When both parents agree or when financial circumstances change, can you terminate or waive child support? The answer is far more complicated than a mere yes or a firm no. Reaching the age of majority is a rather significant event in many respects, but this is not always synonymous with the fact that a parent will not have to provide any support for his or her child any longer.
It is necessary for the parents to know when exactly their child support can be terminated, when child support arrears can be waived, and what the best legal procedures are for avoiding legal trouble. Let’s discuss how these processes are done and what circumstances trigger them.
When child support actually ends, it depends on the state
In most states, child support stops at the age of 18 or high school graduation, whatever comes later. For example, if a child reaches the age of 18 in his/her junior year, he/she will probably continue to receive child support until the child graduates from school. In some states, child support lasts even longer than that.
In Texas, support runs until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever comes later, as long as the child stays enrolled and meets attendance requirements. There is no fixed age ceiling. Texas also treats the withholding order as a separate administrative mechanism, so the paperwork to stop wage withholding usually has to be filed even after the underlying obligation ends.
In California, child support usually ends at 18. It continues past 18 only if the child is unmarried, still a full-time high school student, and not self-supporting. In that case, support runs until the child finishes 12th grade or turns 19, whichever happens first.
California courts cannot order parents to pay college expenses, which distinguishes the state from roughly a third of U.S. jurisdictions. Child support belongs to the child, so parents cannot waive it outright. They can stipulate to a different amount, even below the guideline, but a California court will approve that only if both parents declare they are fully informed, free of coercion, and satisfied that the amount still meets the children’s needs. The catch is that either parent can later move it back up to the guideline without showing any change in circumstances.
For any special cases not covered above, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child Support Services is the appropriate body to refer to. According to Round Rock child support lawyer Heidi L. Heinrich, it is important for a parent who is seeking to establish, modify, or enforce child support orders to seek the assistance of a family law attorney who is experienced in child support.
The termination does not happen automatically
In most states, the order for child support does not expire automatically once the termination deadline is reached.
The paying party needs to make a motion to the court that has made the order initially, prove the fact that the criteria for termination have been met, and receive a signed order that would terminate the obligation. Until that happens, the obligation remains open.
The practical advice is the same in all states, regardless of the children’s age or the termination process: file the termination petition before the expiration date, not after. The courts will not go back and reduce any arrears accumulated under an existing order.
How educational status extends the obligation
When it comes to supporting children until completion of college or postsecondary education, which does not include Texas and California, the issue of attendance will take precedence when the child turns 18.
Different states have different requirements for proving the need for the support obligation. Some of the requirements include proof of full-time attendance versus part-time attendance, academic performance, attendance after graduating from high school, and restrictions on the number of hours worked by the students who are entitled to continued support.
In those states where there is no requirement for postsecondary support, the decision whether to pay for college costs is solely within the discretion of the parties themselves, which can be achieved through an agreement or negotiated separately.
Early emancipation, when support ends before 18
Events that are regarded as emancipation include the marriage of the child, the child’s enlistment in active military duty, a court decree of emancipation, and, in some states, the determination of the child’s financial self-support. These events may end child support before the normal age, regardless of the state.
The early emancipation of the child would still be subject to formal court action in many states. A parent who becomes aware of the marriage or enlistment of the child cannot just discontinue payments without court order.
Disabled children form another special case. Some states permit or mandate continuation of support past the normal termination age in the event of a disability that renders the child unable to support himself.
In some states, this authority has no limit. Other jurisdictions impose an age limit or terminate support when the disability ends. Support for a disabled adult child is a matter of state law, not federal guidelines. Texas allows indefinite support where the child needs substantial care, cannot be self-supporting, and the disability or its cause existed before the 18th birthday. California sets no age ceiling at all and obligates both parents to maintain a child of any age who is incapacitated from earning a living and without sufficient means. Either state can direct those payments to a special needs trust.
Arrears do not end when the order terminates
Ending a current support order does not erase what is already owed. Federal law makes each missed payment a vested judgment, so no court can retroactively cancel arrears. Collection continues through wage garnishment, tax refund intercepts, license suspension, liens, and passport denial. In California, support judgments stay enforceable until paid in full and never need renewal. One deadline does apply. A contempt action must be filed within three years of the missed payment, though every other collection tool survives past that point.
Acting before the anticipated end date protects both parties
Child support does not always end cleanly when a child becomes an adult. Termination ages differ by state, and as Texas and California show, the grounds differ even where the ages look similar.
Arrears already owed survive termination in both states but the procedures involved differ. Texas requires a multi-child order to spell out the reduced amount owed as each child ages out, while a California order covering several children does not shrink on its own and the paying parent has to request a modification. In either state, wage withholding can keep running after the duty ends until someone files to stop it. Review the order and the governing statute before the child’s birthday rather than after.
Fourteen percent of workers 50 and older say they were turned down for a job in the past two years specifically because of their age, and nearly a quarter say they’re already being pushed out of the job they have. Two-thirds have seen or lived through age discrimination at work firsthand. Those figures come from research published this year, and they land differently once you’ve sent out a stack of applications and heard nothing back.
Workers 55 and older who lose a job also stay unemployed longer than younger workers do. In the most recent government data, more than a quarter of jobseekers 55 and older had been searching for over six months, compared to under a quarter of jobseekers under 55. That gap shows up long before anyone sits across from you at an interview table. It usually starts with a piece of software.
Nearly all recruiters now filter candidates through some kind of applicant tracking system before a person ever looks at a resume, and qualified candidates get screened out constantly over formatting choices or wording that has nothing to do with skill. A graduation date, an old-fashioned job title, a skills section built as a table: any one of these can sink an application before it’s read.
The bias is real, and it isn’t something you caused. Start with what’s easiest to fix and hardest to notice: the file itself.
Cut your work history back to the last 10 to 15 years
Image Credit: Shutterstock
If your resume lists a job from the late 1990s, the software scanning it won’t care, but the person reading it afterward will draw conclusions fast. Job search advisers who specialize in working with people over 40 generally recommend focusing your work experience section on the last 10 to 15 years, since that’s the window most employers actually weigh when deciding who to interview. Older roles don’t need to disappear completely. They can shrink down to a single line under a header like “Earlier experience,” with no bullet points, no dates, and no detail that isn’t still relevant.
This isn’t about hiding your career. It’s about controlling which part of it gets read first. A recruiter spending twenty seconds on your resume absorbs whatever sits at the top of the page, and if that’s a decade-old title paired with software nobody uses anymore, that’s the impression that sticks. Trimming the oldest roles down, or dropping them if they add nothing to the job you’re chasing now, keeps the focus on what you’ve done recently and what you’re ready to do next.
Drop the graduation year from your degree
Image Credit: Shutterstock
About half of older job seekers say they’ve been asked for a graduation date at some point during a job search, and many report being asked their birthdate outright. Neither question is illegal on its own, but both can end up used as evidence in an age discrimination case, which tells you how directly employers connect graduation years to age. There’s no upside to volunteering the information before anyone’s even met you.
List your degree, your school, and your major. Leave the year off entirely, especially if you finished more than fifteen years ago. If you’ve earned a more recent certification or a second degree, that one can keep its date, since recency there works in your favor. This single edit takes thirty seconds and removes one of the clearest age markers on the entire page, all without touching a word about your actual qualifications.
Automated screening raises the stakes here too. In one closely watched lawsuit, a major software company’s AI hiring platform was accused of automatically rejecting older applicants within minutes of submission, before anyone on the hiring team had opened the file. A human recruiter might glance past a graduation date. A machine reads it instantly, every single time.
Rip out the tables, columns, and graphics
Image Credit: Shutterstock
A two-column layout might look sharp on your screen, but most parsing software reads a document in a straight line, left to right, top to bottom. When it hits a table or a side-by-side column, it often slices straight across the page instead of reading down through each section in order, and the result is unrelated sentences mashed together into an unreadable block. Your carefully organized skills section can come out the other side as gibberish, or vanish from the parsed data entirely.
If you want your skills to stand out visually, use a simple separator instead: a vertical bar, a comma, or a plain bullet point between each one, all typed in a single running line rather than boxed into a grid. Save any bar charts or graphic skill ratings for a portfolio site or a version you hand someone in person. For anything going through an online application form, a single column top to bottom is the only format that reliably survives the trip.
Move your contact information out of the header
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Plenty of resume templates tuck a name and phone number into a designer header at the top of the page, which looks clean to a human eye. The trouble is that many parsing systems skip header and footer layers entirely, treating them as decoration rather than content. A recruiter search might return your resume with a blank space where your name should be, or no way to find your phone number at all.
The fix is simple: type your name, phone number, email, city and state, and a LinkedIn link directly into the main body of the document, at the very top, formatted with bold text or a larger font size instead of a header box. You can check whether your current resume has this problem by selecting all the text in the document. If your header content doesn’t highlight along with everything else, the software reading it can’t see that content either, no matter how good it looks when you open the file yourself.
This is a quick fix, but it’s an easy one to miss, since most word processors default to a header for exactly this kind of information. Rebuilding it as plain text in the body takes a few minutes and removes any doubt about whether a recruiter can actually find your name.
Go back to standard section headings
Image Credit: Shutterstock
A heading like “My Journey” or “The Toolkit” might feel more personal than “Work Experience,” but a parsing system isn’t built to guess. It’s looking for specific, industry-standard section titles to sort your information correctly, and creative labels can cause your work history to land in the wrong bucket, or not get categorized at all.
Stick with the headings recruiters and software both expect: “Work Experience” or “Professional Experience,” “Education,” and “Skills.” If you want a summary section at the top, call it “Professional Summary” rather than something clever. This applies to subheadings too. A line like “Where I studied” in place of a plain “Education” header can be enough to make the software miss your degree entirely.
None of this makes your resume less distinctive. The personality belongs in the writing underneath each heading, in the specific results and language you use to describe your work, not in the label sitting above it. Save the creativity for your bullet points, where a recruiter and a piece of software will both actually be able to find it.
Skip anything colorful, hand-lettered, or stylized, no matter how much personality it adds on screen, and the same goes for tiny icons swapped in for the word “phone” or “email.” If you want to check your own resume, copy the entire document and paste it into a plain text editor. If what comes back looks like a coded transmission, that’s close to what the parsing software sees too, and it’s worth rebuilding in a standard font before you apply anywhere else. This one costs you nothing in personality and buys you a lot of reliability.
Pick one clear format, either “Jan 2021 to Mar 2023” or “01/2021 to 03/2023,” and use it identically for every single position on the page, including your education section and any certifications. This matters even more once you’re trying to trim down a long career, since a parsing error that shows incomplete dates can make you look less experienced than you are, or flag your resume as incomplete altogether. Five minutes spent double-checking every date on the page, start to finish, is one of the fastest and most overlooked fixes available to you before you hit submit on anything.
Retire the outdated email address
Image Credit: Shutterstock
An email address is a small detail, but it’s one of the first things a recruiter sees, and an old provider sends a signal you don’t want to send. Career advisers who work with older job seekers are blunt about this one: say goodbye to a Hotmail or AOL account and set up something on Gmail or Outlook instead, since an outdated address can read as a sign you haven’t kept up with basic technology, whether or not that’s remotely true.
This takes about ten minutes to fix and costs nothing. Create a clean address using some version of your name, forward your important messages over, and update every job application, LinkedIn profile, and business card you have. It’s a small change with an outsized effect, precisely because it’s the kind of detail people notice without ever consciously registering why, the same way an odd font or a clip-art icon registers as slightly off before anyone can say what’s wrong.
Update job titles that sound like they’re stuck in the past
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Job titles shift over time, and a title that was standard fifteen years ago can now read as a subtle age signal on its own. A “chief” of a department is more commonly called a team leader or manager today, and a “vendor” role has largely become a sales manager or account coordinator title. Refreshing old-fashioned titles into their current equivalents helps a recruiter place your experience correctly without doing any translation work themselves.
This isn’t about inflating your role or claiming responsibilities you didn’t have. It’s just an update: use the modern name for the job you actually did, the same way job postings for that role are worded today. If you’re not sure what the current title is, search a few postings for similar roles at other companies and match whichever phrasing shows up most often. This has the added benefit of making your resume easier for a parsing system to categorize correctly, since it’s now searching for a term that’s still in active use.
Mirror the exact wording from the job posting
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Small differences in phrasing matter more than most job seekers realize, because a lot of parsing software doesn’t recognize synonyms. If a posting asks for “Adobe Creative Cloud” and your resume says “Adobe Creative Suite,” you might get filtered out even though you have the exact skill they’re looking for. One study found that 88 percent of employers say their hiring systems filter out qualified candidates who don’t precisely match the job description, which is a much bigger gap than most people assume.
Read the posting closely, note which terms show up more than once, and use that exact language in your skills section and work history bullets wherever it accurately describes what you’ve done. This isn’t keyword stuffing, and it doesn’t mean padding your resume with terms you can’t back up in an interview. It’s translating your real experience into the specific words the person reading it, human or software, is actively searching for, so the match is obvious the moment either one looks.
Put your job title near the top, not just buried in a bullet
If you’re using a professional summary at the top of your resume, work the title of the role you’re applying for directly into that first line, alongside your years of experience and your strongest area of expertise. This does double duty: it tells the software exactly what to match you against, and it tells a human reader in the first three seconds that you’re not a mismatch they need to keep guessing about. Use the title from the posting itself, not a close approximation, even if your last official title was slightly different on paper.
Stack multiple roles at one company under a single header
Image Credit: Shutterstock
If you were promoted a few times within the same company, listing each role as a separate entry with the company name repeated can confuse parsing software into thinking you changed employers every couple of years. The safer approach is what career advisers call the umbrella method: list the company name once at the top, then stack each job title and its dates underneath it, so the software attributes every role to the correct employer.
This format also reads better to a human recruiter, since it shows a clear upward path inside one organization rather than a list of unrelated jobs, which matters if you’ve spent a long stretch of your career with a single employer. List your most recent title first, then work backward through earlier titles at the same company, each with its own set of achievement bullets underneath. It takes a few extra minutes to restructure, and it solves two problems at once, keeping the parsing software accurate and giving a recruiter a clean, easy story of your growth.
Save the file the way the posting actually asks for
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Most job postings specify a file type, and ignoring that instruction is a needless risk. When a posting doesn’t specify one, career advisers who work directly with applicant tracking systems generally say it’s usually safe to use either a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file, as long as the file is built around plain text rather than a design template.
Whatever format you choose, never submit a resume exported as a flattened image or built in a design tool meant for social graphics rather than documents, since the software sees zero readable text in either case, no matter how good it looks on screen. Before you upload anything, open the final file yourself and confirm the text is still selectable and copyable. If you can’t highlight and copy a sentence from your own resume, the software processing it can’t read that sentence either, and neither can the recruiter searching for your name afterward.
Swap the objective statement for a real professional summary
Image Credit: Markus Winkler via Unsplash
An objective statement that says you’re “seeking a challenging position where I can grow professionally” tells a recruiter nothing they can use, and it wastes prime real estate at the top of your resume, the spot most likely to actually get read. A professional summary does more work in the same space: three or four sentences naming your years of experience, your specific area of expertise, and one concrete result you’re proud of, written the way you’d describe yourself to someone at a conference, not the way a form letter would describe you.
This section is where you can also work in the job title and top keywords from the posting, giving both the software and the human reader a fast, accurate read on who you are before they’ve absorbed a single bullet point further down. Keep it tight, three or four sentences at most. This is a preview of your resume, not a second copy of it, and it’s the one part of the page almost guaranteed to get read in full.
Paste your resume into plain text before you hit submit
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Even a resume that looks perfect on your screen can fall apart once it’s run through parsing software, and there’s a fast way to check before you find out the hard way. Copy every word of your resume and paste it into a plain text file using Notepad or TextEdit. If the result looks like a scrambled, out-of-order mess, that’s close to what the software sees too, regardless of how polished the formatted version appears.
Check that your contact information appears at the very top, that your work history reads in the right order, and that nothing important has vanished or turned into odd symbols. This test takes two minutes and catches the exact kind of invisible formatting problem that quietly costs people interviews they were otherwise qualified for. Run it every time you change templates, and run it again before every new application if your formatting has shifted at all.
Bottom line on beating the applicant tracking system
Image Credit: Shutterstock
None of these fifteen changes can rewrite how a hiring manager feels about age. What they can do is get your resume past the software deciding who a human ever sees, and workers 50 and older who list current technology skills on their profiles are actually closing the so-called tech gap with younger colleagues, not falling behind it, with that group’s use of skills like AI on their professional profiles growing nearly twice as fast as younger workers’ over the past five years. The resume just needs to say so clearly enough for the software to notice.
