Lets say I've been making 50k a year since I was 20. I put 5k a year into a retirement account (IRA/401k/$country's equivalent) and another 5k into just a regular saving account to keep it liquid for a rainy day. After taxes and what not that means I'm probably living on 20k a year.

I lose my job at 35. I now have 75k in liquid savings. I spend the first 6 months looking for a job, now I'm down to 65k, I decide to retrain. That's 10-20K and 12-24 months if I go to Community College. So I'm dead broke by the end. If I have to buy a car, or break an ankle I'll never make it.

So I get a part time job in retail making 10-12k a year before taxes just to help defray the cost and to keep the unemployment gap on my resume smaller. Great I make it through. Except now I'm 37 looking for a job in a field that I have no previous work experience in. So I keep my retail job and try to squeeze enough hours out of it keep everything together, or I get a second job. Now I'm a constantly stressed and exhausted 37 year old paranoid about taking a day off to interview because what if they cut my hours in retaliation for missing a shift who is looking for a job in a field that I have no previous work experience in.