\u201cThe Long Road Back: Struggling to Find Work after Unemployment.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\nMany older workers face a triple whammy: they\u2019re often the first to go when companies make cutbacks, because seniority means their salaries are higher than those of their younger counterparts. Then they have the hardest time finding new jobs, at a time in life when they can often least afford it, when they\u2019re also paying kids\u2019 college tuition, or for care for aging parents. Mortgages aren\u2019t yet paid up and retirement looms just a few years away.<\/p>\n
Perception Problem<\/strong><\/p>\nWhy? Older workers face a perception problem, according to Beverley Riddick, executive director of the Ready To Work Business Collaborative, a nonprofit based in New York that encourages employers to hire talent they may have overlooked in traditional recruitment, including older workers.<\/p>\n
Hiring managers may assume that an older job seeker is stuck in old habits or \u201cwon\u2019t play well\u201d with a supervisor who is the same age as his or her children. Riddick recalls the experience of a 60-something job candidate who felt he\u2019d nailed a job interview\u2014until the considerably younger hiring manager walked him out. Looking around at the office\u2019s open layout, the hiring manager turned to the candidate and asked, \u201cDo you think you\u2019d fit in here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that moment, the candidate knew then that he wasn\u2019t going to get the job, and he never heard back,\u201d Riddick says.<\/p>\n
The New Start Career Network, which serves long-term unemployed job seekers 45 and up in New Jersey, identified a list of stereotypes that contribute to the problem: the beliefs that older workers are not interested in acquiring new skills; that they lack ambition and energy and have cognitive or physical health challenges; that they are inflexible and less tech savvy; and that they will cost more in wages and health insurance.<\/p>\n
There are times when being better educated limits an older person\u2019s job prospects.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nEven the hiring process itself puts older adults at a disadvantage, according to Claire Turner, director of the senior employment program at the Senior Source in Dallas. Many companies now use impersonal digital tools, like keyword searches, to screen resumes. Job seekers who don\u2019t know how to work the system, or whose qualifications don\u2019t fit preset, and sometimes arbitrary, requirements, end up eliminated before a human being even sees their resumes. For example, when an employer posts a job opening for candidates with three to five years of experience, the computer-based screening process may automatically filter out qualified people who happen to have more years of experience.<\/p>\n
Older job hunters who do get past the computer screening process often don\u2019t get past the first interview. Employers usually won\u2019t say why they didn\u2019t hire someone, and they\u2019re particularly careful not to mention age. But older job candidates often sense a hiring manager\u2019s dismay when they meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person turns up for the interview, and the hiring manager\u2014someone in his 30s\u2014will say something like, \u2018Are you going to be able to get up these stairs in the lobby?\u2019\u201d Turner says.<\/p>\n
Education Helps\u2014Maybe<\/strong><\/p>\nOlder workers with the least education face the narrowest set of opportunities, according to the Boston College study. Anderson believes that was part of her problem: she lacks a college degree. She was able to prove herself in the workplace, but in the job market, that missing degree automatically disqualifies her for many jobs.<\/p>\n
Paradoxically, however, education can also limit an older job seeker. After George Delianides, 60, of Saugus, MA, lost his position at age 58 at a marketing research firm, he decided to take his master\u2019s degree off his resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thinking was, that omission might help get my foot in the door for at least an interview,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise the employer could assume that, with my age, experience and formal education, I was way out of their salary range.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riddick says that\u2019s a common drawback for many older workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmployers tend to back away from people who\u2019ve earned higher salaries in the past,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ll say, \u2018I\u2019m not going to interview someone who made $125,000, because I\u2019m only paying $75,000,\u2019 even though that older job seeker might happily take that lower salary because of financial responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Not Just about the Paycheck<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen older workers are unemployed or underemployed, it\u2019s not just their personal finances that suffer. Employment means more than a paycheck. Work offers routine, purpose and a social environment, all linked to better physical and emotional health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met some accomplished, wonderful people who feel unemployable for the first time in their lives,\u201d Turner says. \u201cIt can be very discouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson notes that, when her four children were young, her prospects for promotion were sometimes limited because she was unable to travel extensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I\u2019m an empty nester, and I can put in those extra hours, but I can\u2019t find a good job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The good news: some major companies now offer internships or training programs meant for older people.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nShe adds that, if she were fully employed, she\u2019d continue paying the maximum amount into social security until age 65 or later. Now, she\u2019s draining her retirement savings to make ends meet and will likely need to start collecting benefits at the earliest possible date.<\/p>\n
Most older Americans are already behind on saving for retirement; if they lose several prime earning years, they\u2019ll fall even farther behind. That has negative implications for society as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen older people start to deplete their own resources near retirement age, it makes them even more reliant on whatever federal or state backdrops are available,\u201d says Greg McBride, Bankrate.com\u2019s chief financial analyst.<\/p>\n
Reasons for Hope<\/strong><\/p>\nNot every company is unwilling to hire older workers. Some are actually taking strides to embrace their job experience and finding creative new ways to bring them back into the workforce.<\/p>\n
Some major companies are offering internship or training programs specifically geared toward older employees. Many focus on professionals who\u2019ve taken career breaks, such as parents who left to raise children. Goldman Sachs, for example, hosts a \u201creturnship,\u201d a highly selective, 10-week program that pays competitive salaries to qualified candidates, most of them 40 or older, who had achieved an executive-level status in their earlier career and who had been out of work at least two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternships help remove some of perceived risk that hiring managers may associate with hiring from this pool, and they give the participants a gradual and structured ramping-up platform,\u201d writes Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO of iRelaunch, a company that works with professionals seeking to return to work, as well as with employers recruiting from this demographic group.<\/p>\n
Some career experts advise proceeding with caution, however: not all internships pay, and they don\u2019t always lead to permanent jobs.<\/p>\n
The Senior Source\u2019s Turner thinks she\u2019s beginning to see an attitude change, especially among employers in smaller and medium-sized companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey appreciate older workers\u2019 work ethic and their reliability,\u201d she says. \u201cEmployers are clamoring for people who are good with customers, and many people over 50 have those interpersonal skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Focusing on those strengths, Delianides believes, is what helped him land another good job despite his age. His new position in marketing at a retail firm is roughly equivalent to his previous job in terms of responsibility. His pay is lower, but he didn\u2019t expect to match his previous salary, given that he doesn\u2019t have 18 years of seniority with the new employer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played to my strengths,\u201d he says. \u201cI know the business. I\u2019ve been in stressful situations before. I can be counted on.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for others like Anderson\u2014who recently learned that the convenience store where she works will close soon\u2014the inability to find a good job weighs heavily as they look to the future.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s taking it day by day, which keeps her focused, she says, adding, \u201cThinking ten years out overwhelms me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At one point in her career, Amy Anderson supervised more than 50 people and managed a multimillion dollar budget for a Fortune 500 company. But after losing what she calls her \u201clast good job\u201d in 2013, she had no luck…<\/span><\/p>\nRead more Looking for Work after 50? Are You Also Out of Luck?<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-older","category-security"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"wps_subtitle":"The problem is serious, but there are new, hopeful signs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4518"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4534,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions\/4534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}