In my area some jobs are posted completely in Spanish; some people don’t want to hire someone familiar with labor law, rights, etc.
The fact is that many of us in that age group have expenses that could never be covered by these McJobs, so potential employers know we could never stay if there was an economic recovery. They hire younger people who barely have the required skills; they get what they pay for, and that is all they want.
I’m on disability, but at one point I entertained the notion of trying to get back to work. I looked at the jobs out there in my profession (I was a legal secretary/ assistant) and then I started looking at generic secretarial jobs. Well, where I live, the legal secretary profession is dying. Law firms and corporations are actually downsizing their support staff. The few jobs there are pay peanuts, have few, if any, benefits and are part time. I’m better off staying on SSD and Medicare.
My daughters were turned down for fast-food jobs.
Because they didn’t speak SPANISH. . .