Man in his 60s laid off from Intel hunts for jobs, says ‘retiring doesn’t make sense for me yet’

A former employee of Intel, laid off in his early 60s, has opened up about the financial challenges he faced and how unemployment disrupted his retirement plans. Brad Jenkins, a US-based technician, lost his job in mid-2025 after working for four years with the tech company in Oregon, according to a report by Business Insider.

Jenkins, who joined Intel at 59, said he was always sceptical about being laid off from the start of his job. "I was 59 at the time, and I remember thinking. Why are you hiring some old fart like me?" Over the next few years, I survived multiple rounds of layoffs," he was quoted as saying by Business Insider.

'Well, I'm not a manager, so I should be safe'

Jenkins said that everything in the job was going smoothly until March 2025, when Intel replaced the chief executive officer (CEO), and there was an emphasis on reducing management layers.

"Well, I'm not a manager, so I should be safe." I thought I'd retire there, but I was wrong," he said.

On July 7, Jenkins was informed that he had been terminated and that his last working day would be July 31. Since then, he has been struggling to find work and feels that this is not the right time for him to retire.

Jenkins said that the lay-off hurt him, as he loved doing his job. He added that he took a break, relying on his savings and several weeks of severance pay before looking for another job.

One of the first things he did was take a month-long road trip to Colorado, where he also attended a free workshop on an electric vehicle charger maintenance programme.

"The class is free, I've never been to Colorado, I have an interest in electric vehicles, and it might help me find a new job. I knew the Oregon state government had plans to add more EV chargers across the state, so I thought it could be a lucrative area to get into," he was quoted as saying by the outlet.

"After the class, I decided to extend my break from the working world, spending about a month in California for what I thought of as a post-layoff trip. I still had some savings and hadn't started collecting unemployment benefits yet. From what I understood, I wasn't eligible for unemployment if I wasn't in the state," he added.

'I’m not sure if my age has worked against me in my job search'

Last November, he aggressively started looking for work on the networking site LinkedIn. There were a handful of opportunities that I went for some interviews too, but couldn't manage to bag an offer.

“I’m not sure if my age has worked against me in my job search," he said.

He asserted that there is less demand for the work he did at Intel, as many technicians are searching for jobs, whether due to cost-cutting or other factors.

He further stated that retirement does not make sense for him due to financial constraints, with the biggest hindrance being healthcare expenses. " I can't apply for Medicare until I'm 65, which is a few years away, and the Affordable Care Act isn't as helpful with the subsidies expiring. Having a job provides healthcare benefits, so it's pretty crucial that I get back to work," he said.