THOMAS R. COLLINS, 66, a former sheriff’s deputy, takes little comfort in the lower national unemployment rate because, like many older workers, he has had a long spell of joblessness since he retired in 2010.þþA former lieutenant in the Cook County sheriff’s department in Illinois, Mr. Collins receives a pension, which, he said, is a “nice cushion,” but he needed to cover other expenses. He continued a part-time job in security for the retail clothing discounter Syms, in Niles, Ill., but the company went out of business the next year, in 2011, and the position disappeared.þþSince then, he has been looking for a job as he worries about the future of his pension in light of the debate swirling in Illinois over how to offset its huge state budget shortfall. One proposal is to make serious cutbacks in the public employee pension system.þþ“I don’t live high,” said Mr. Collins, who lives in Algonquin, Ill. “But even trying to get part-time work is discouraging. Employers can hire someone younger and for a lot less, and they would hire 80 percent of the people ahead of me before they would hire me.”þþDespite some indications here and there that the baby boom generation is working longer, few workers were hurt as badly as those over 50 in the years after the economic crisis that began unfolding in 2008. Many were forced to take jobs at lower pay, with fewer hours and less generous benefits — or no job at all.þþTo gauge the toll the recession took on older workers, the AARP Public Policy Institute questioned 2,492 people who had been jobless in the previous five years and will release the report, “The Long Road Back: Struggling to Find Work After Unemployment,” on Monday.þþLong-term unemployment among older workers has been a major concern. On average, 45 percent of job seekers age 55 and older, like Mr. Collins, have been looking long term, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which defines long term as 27 or more weeks without work. To address the reluctance of employers to consider such workers, the Obama administration last year started an initiative to encourage private and public companies to hire the long-term unemployed.þþþþ“Although the general unemployment rate is falling, that can be misleading for people who are 55 and older who are long-term unemployed,” said Gary Koenig, who wrote the AARP report with Lori Trawinski and Sara Rix. The survey was conducted in October 2014 and included people 45 to 70 years old.þþMr. Koenig, an economist, said that the study’s results were “a mixed bag. You have about half who remain unemployed or have dropped out of the labor force, and the other half who have been able to find new employment, but conditions of that employment vary.”þþThe occupations growing the fastest, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are personal care and home health aides. Other growing job areas, which require specialized training, are nearly all in the health field and include occupational and physical therapy assistants, physician assistants and genetic counselors.þþContinue reading the main story þþFor those who speak foreign languages, labor experts also project that there will be a rising need for interpreters and translators in courtrooms and other settings. But finding any of this work is harder for those who have been unemployed for lengthy periods because companies often view them as too old, not flexible and not computer-literate.þþRepeated joblessness, Mr. Koenig said, takes a financial toll, adding, “Jobs that pay less or have fewer hours undermine financial security for these workers now and into the future.”þþAbout one-fifth of those in the AARP study had two stints of unemployment over the last five years, and 23 percent had three or more jobless spells over the same time period. About 57 percent had one period of unemployment.þþOver all, 73 percent of those who told the AARP they were unemployed had been out of work for six months or longer, and the rest were shorter-term unemployed. That did not include the estimated 12 percent who ,left the labor force completely after failing to find a job. Even though the total numbers of long-term unemployed have declined, Mr. Koenig said older workers are still seriously affected — many by age bias. (Age discrimination is hard to prove, however, and lawsuits are on the decline).þþ“People don’t want somebody old,” agreed Lawrence Hardy, 65, an Internet services consultant of Columbus, Miss. A former teacher and employee of Sprint and Teletech in the Denver area, Mr. Hardy has also written a book on the history of computing.þþSince returning to Mississippi, where he was born, Mr. Hardy has found some employment and lists himself as retired. He said he had gotten the brushoff from many prospective employers.þþ“They are too smart to say it’s an age issue, but they see my degree was from 1975 and they say, ‘We’ll call you back.’ ”þþDespite the competition for fewer jobs and the impediment of age bias, Mr. Koenig said that of those who reported they had been able to find a new job, two-thirds said they had full-time jobs and the rest found part-time work. Full time work is considered 35 hours a week or more.þþAmong those who had found employment, fewer than one-third of those responding said they were earning more, and even fewer said their benefits were better.þþIt took Cheryl Moyer, 62, of Leonidas, Mich., several years to find a job after she was laid off in 2006 when the appliance parts company where she worked was closed. She had been a factory worker for more than two decades at different locations. She had a brief stint in security work, but then needed to care for her husband, Jerry, who died in early 2014.þþIn 2011, she found a part-time job working as deputy treasurer for Leonidas. The position has no benefits and pays a minimum hourly wage. And like 45 percent of the re-employed, she found her job through contacts, and not social media, which was little used by older job seekers.þþAmong those who were able to find work, nearly half, including Oscar Rojas, 65, of Tampa, Fla., said they had a better work situation — despite lower salaries and fewer benefits. Mr. Rojas lost his job last year as a Medicare insurance agent after his employer, Physicians United Plan, a large private insurer, was declared insolvent.þþContinue reading the main story Continue reading the main story þþContinue reading the main story þþHe spent four months unemployed, then found work with a tax preparation company helping people register and get subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.þþ“I don’t get any fringe benefits,” he said, “but I don’t have to travel 7,500 miles a month around Florida to visit our clients.”þþOthers, like Gary L. Olson, 61, of Portland, Ore., are shaping their working lives with their own businesses.þþWhen Mr. Olson, a retirement plan administrator in California, moved back to Oregon after his wife died in early 2013, he found that employers “took one look at my job history and my salary level, and I’m all gray and white hair. I pretty much look my age, so I could see that they were thinking that ‘I can hire someone and pay a lot less.’ ”þþAfter sending out 20 applications and receiving only two interviews, he decided to go into a different occupation, a path that was taken by 53 percent of those who found a job after stints of unemployment.þþOn March 1, he closed on Le Cookie Monkey, a cake and cookie shop in Portland, which he bought from its founder.þþ“I used some retirement funds to buy the business,” he said, “but it’s got good people who work there. I’m going to be taking care of the financial end and let them handle the baking.”þ
Source: NY Times
